Despite his behaviour on Severnside Walkies outings (!!!!) Pongo is normally an incredibly laid back boy. Each day he gets a walk in the morning, and a bit of play in the afternoon; plus a couple of gentle rambles round the garden first and last thing. Apart from that, he is perfectly happy to snooze the day away patiently while we work. Until the last week. All morning he is constantly pestering us for attention, whining, nudging our elbows. After lunch he is generally snoozy again, but during the mornings he's driving me spare. This has happened every day since new year. Is this perhaps a hangover from Christmas, when he did have a run of three or four days where his routine was completely thrown out and pretty much full on excitement? Or is it something about growing up..... he has just turned three years old? I need him to settle down again or it is going to come to blows! I don't want to tell him off but I can't cope with the nag-nag-nag-nag-nag.....
I have no idea what's wrong with him but if he gets too annoying and you need a break I don't mind taking him for a while. Pongo is my lab-dream.
To be honest, he is not getting a lot of activity for a healthy 3 year old male - he is absolutely in the prime of his life. I know you adore him, and he adores you, but Charlie would be going up the walls with only that amount of activity. Unless the morning walk was pretty much most of the morning and involved a lot of training. Perhaps Pongo has never really been 'happy' to snooze away the day, but just accepted it as his lot. But recently has enjoyed much more to do and is finding it hard to settle back down to not so much to do? Maybe up his activities a bit, but then draw a line and refuse to give in to the nagging. If you just ignore him, he will stop.
Have you perhaps had a change in the weather, like a cold snap? Brogan was very chilled out but would always get extra frisky when it would get cold or snow...he LOVED going out in cold weather. Or could you have a female in season around your place and he's getting a whiff? Or... you may have already guessed it with the routine thing. For some dogs, doing something different for a couple of days in row then becomes the new routine. Maybe Pongo is in perma-Christmas mode! Maybe a longer morning walk with a big beautiful stuffed Kong would do the trick and he'll settle back in within a few days, for your sanity's sake!
Tuppence has been nagging quite a lot since Christmas. I think it's perhaps because there aren't new things happening and extra people around. She's very insistent about wanting to play with her ball, often my throwing it on my foot (it's quite heavy because it's Tuppy-chew-proof!) or dumping it on my lap and then nudging me, usually when I'm trying to work on my computer! She found parcels arriving, doing Christmas decorations, various visitors and more family around very exciting, so she's not keen on returning to the old routine. Wispa has accepted it more readily, with her wisdom of five years!
Well, it's certainly been cold.... but he isn't really wanting to go out to play, just begging for attention....
Holly's been the same recently. She wants to play and keeps bringing us toys. Her walks are normal, and her routine hasn't changed, but she is more restless. Maybe it's just the weather?
That is really interesting. Whatever the reason, it's good to hear Pongo isn't the only one.... Thank you everyone, I'll try him on a bit more exciting walks and hope he settles down when he realises it isn't Tree-time any more! R xx
