I'm really disappointed that I can't get Ripple to settle unless he is in his crate with the door shut. He will lay at my feet if I keep feeding treats but gets bored and wanders off if I stop. Only once he went to sleep at my feet and I was so pleased that I put it in a post on here. I've tried being really calm and quiet with him but he goes off to chew the furniture and now has gone back to biting my leg as well (whole mouth round my leg and using his teeth quite hard). He's quite happy to be shut in his crate either with or without a Kong, and although he's getting plenty of time going out, both on and off lead, and time indoors training and playing, I think it's a shame that we don't seem to be able to have any 'downtime' together. I know he's teething and is a bit cranky but he is so different to my previous two chocolate labs that I'm at a loss to know how to change the situation.
I should also add that he doesn't take himself back into the crate without being asked so I'm never actually sure whether he's tired and ready to go to sleep.
If you say he is teething, then he is somewhere around 5 months old? Don't worry, he'll get more chilled out as he gets a bit older. There is a good article on the site about getting a dog to settle in the living room with you, but it says that you can really only expect this of a dog that is older than a year. The time passes quickly..... In the meantime, try to reward him any time he is settled, just drop a treat between his paws as you pass (this usually result in them getting up, unfortunately) and you could try putting him on a lead, on a mat by your chair, and giving him a tasty kong - when a dog is eating a kong, they are laying down and quiet and being rewarded by the food, so it's a good starting point with a young dog. The other thing you can do, which worked with my dog is make a room completely "puppy safe" - so everything he might steal out of reach, nothing valuable to chew, and just sit with him and basically ignore him if he is agitated, and reward him with attention and treats when he is calm. The first time you do this you might have to wait a long time for calm. When my dog was young, and on restricted exercise - and a horror in the house - I emptied the kitchen of furniture, put a gate across the entrance, cleared the counters, and sat on the floor on a blanket.... Best of luck with it.
I experienced this with Molly. I used to pray for sunny days as she would stretch out in a pool of warm sunshine Now she will crash out anywhere. As with many things with dogs it is something that changes with maturity
Thank you both - I think one of the problems is Ripple is getting overtired as, because he doesn't stop, I don't recognise when he should have a break. I'm going to rethink what I'm doing with him and maybe spend more time just sitting watching the world go by when we are out rather than him being constantly active. I'll try him with a Kong with him on a lead (I probably won't use a mat as he's obsessed with chewing holes in them) and hopefully he will settle to that rather than chewing the lead as he usually likes to do. I have tried to give him a Kong outside of the crate before but he just throws it round the room spraying the filling everywhere. I do reward him for calm but I find he starts huffing and blowing through his nose at me if I don't reward him often enough! Life with Ripple is certainly a steep learning curve - so different from anything I've encountered before.
Try freezing soaking the Kibble to soften then freezing the Kong. It slows down the sped with which they eat (better for their tums) and gives you much needed peace. Also the food doesn't fly out if they try to play withit. Molly was a non stop girl too. I used to read about people with pups that would suddenly nod off anywhere with great envy.
Surprisingly they are frozen kongs! Ripple has developed a 'suck and chuck' method which eventually loosens the filling so it can be distributed around the floor and walls.
