Remington is about to turn 11 months and we have been giving him more and more freedom in the house. The problem we are having is he gets bored very quickly and whimpers because we are not paying attention to him. When he was younger, we would put him in his play pen after we exercised him. When he relaxed and napped, we would enjoy the time to ourselves. Now, after we exercise him, he recovery time is much quicker. When we try to do things like read a book, watch TV, go on the computer, etc he has freedom to roam the house, but he does his lap and then whimpers because we don't play with him. He even gets inches away from us and barks for minutes straight. We don't want to go back to placing him in his pen and crate when he want time for ourselves. The goal is to have him gain some independence and learn how to occupy himself. We have resorted to Kong treats in the past, but we don't necessarily want to resort to food. We are looking for suggestions on how you gave your lab more freedom so that he/she knows how to chill our on their own without the need for our constant attention.
For us it has just taken time. Chewie (13 months) has always had the run of the downstairs area, though the amount of supervision required has slowly decreased. We have started leaving the stairgate open at times when both of us are home and he is slowly learning to relax in different rooms. He always chooses to be in the room with us (or sleeping on our bed, which us his favourite place ever), but we have progressed to being able to work in the office for an hour or two while he naps on the floor, which is great.
Dogs don't do things which don't work. If barking at you or whimpering didn't work, I can guarantee he would not do either. If you give him any attention - look at him, talk to him, touch him - or respond to him in any way when he is making noise, you are reinforcing the noise. It will only occur more frequently because you are making the behaviour stronger...
We often left the room when we bought Willow home at 8 weeks old she just lay on her mat near the sofa. She ocupies herself with her toys or chew toys. If I'm in kitchen she often sits in the living room on her own.
