We have a 5 month year old puppy black lab.He is fully house broken. We have a dog walker walk him 2x a day when we are working. We leave him in a spare bedroom bedroom behind a gate when we are not home..He has a bed and tons of toys. Lately he started chewing mouldings..Do you reccomended placing him back into his crate? To stop the behavior? He also does typical puppy stuff chews and nips and bites our clothes..
Hi @Stretch75 You're are to be congratulated on trying to do the right thing. Puppy walker good idea. Two possible explanations for his behaviour. 1. Separation anxiety. You will need to film him after you leave to observe his behaviour. Let us know what you observe, and the timing. 2. He is bored. Re the second hypothesis, what is the maximal amount of time he would be in a crate between walks, and between when you leave and arrive before and after the puppy walker? If you need to recrate him, which is preferred to him eating your house, you will need to tire him out mentally. Is the puppy walker up to teaching him something involving shaping such as go to mat? You will need frozen kongs to keep him busy? But all this depends on the number of hours he will be crated. Use tug toys to redirect him from biting you to playing with the tug? Make the tug come alive. If he bites you then the game stops. If he persists, then time out.
The puppy walker is a good idea, as long as it is a 1-2-1 walk and not a group walk off-leash with other dogs. The latter is frequently a disaster for young gundogs of any breed... Chewing of furniture is very common in young labradors and throughout adolescence. If you can prevent it until adolescence is over than it rarely occurs. If you allow the dog to discover how amazing chewing furniture is, then it can take a lot longer to stop. Ideally you would be crating the dog when unable to supervise him, but I agree with Michael there is a concern here as to how many hours that would leave the dog crated for. If crating would result in long hours crated, then you may need to create a large playpen which he can remain within without being able to reach stuff he is not supposed to. And of course, he should be left with stuffed Kongs, safe chews and things to keep him busy - so if he wants to chew something, he is going to choose those things and not your furniture...
He would be left 3 hours max after we leave to when the dog walker arrives. He has been to 8 weeks of baisc obedience training and knows some commands. He is never left alone for more than 3 hours.. A playpen may be a good option..
Hi @Stretch75 If the puppy walker is one on one that could be worth pursuing. At your pup's age the puppy walker should not walk the dog for the entire hour. A visit to a park (not a dog park) in which the puppy can sniff at length (30 minutes) would be the way to go. Think window shopping speed with the pup setting where the the pair go. The sniffing will result in mental stimulation, which tires all dogs.
I think 3 hours once a day is a reasonable time to leave a pup crated in a large crate with a stuffed Kong. You might find that, after the walk, he can be left out of the crate because he's tired and more inclined to sleep. If he likes to chew wooden things, check out the PetStages DogWood chew, which is made of wood - hopefully he might choose that instead of your furniture, but supervise the first few times to be sure he is not able to snap off large chunks.
