XP from TN - Overwhelmed With New Dog

[megbeau2605]

Thank you to kellbell for telling me about the move

Hi everyone,

Just need to mini-vent. My soon-to-be husband and I adopted a dog two weeks ago; she's a black lab and we're not exactly sure how old she is, about 8 to 10 months. I grew up with a lab - I got her for my 10th birthday and she passed away last year when she was 14. I love dogs and we love our new puppy, but I am feeling super overwhelmed.

We knew that when we adopted her, it would be for good. We thought long and hard about it because we knew that giving her away wasn't an option. We knew it would be challenging, yet rewarding. In the two weeks since we got her, she tested our patience more than I can say. It's not her fault, because it's normal puppy behaviour, but it's so hard right now because we're getting married NEXT WEEK (!!) and we're exhausted with that.

She chews everything (I mean everything - throw pillows, a deck of cards that we have no idea where she found, my phone charger wire), she's a nightmare to walk, and she gets up several times in the night to pee even though we let her out to pee right before we go to bed, and we make sure she pees. We crate her during the day (we both work) but I feel guilty about it because she whines, but I know we don't have a choice for now because she pees in the house and chews if not crated. I don't want to crate her at night too, but I'm starting to feel like we should because again last night, a big pee on the carpet when we woke up.

We play fetch with her in the back yard for about two hours per day on weekdays, probably closer to four hours on weekends. We take her for 45-60 minute walks two or three times a week, and she still only falls asleep around 11pm and wakes up at 3:30 to pee, then is up for good anywhere from 4:30 to 6:00am. We let her out to pee when we hear her get up around 3:30, but if we don't hear her, then she pees in the living room. She doesn't ask for the door yet.

We are taking to obedience school next month after we get back from our honeymoon, so that should help with the walking. I know she will eventually calm down, but with the stress of the upcoming wedding and the lack of sleep, I feel like I'm going crazy!

CN: A few issues I could use advice on:

-Should we crate our 8-10 month lab at night? She is crated during the day from 8:30am-5:00pm, two days a week I go home to let her out and play with her for about 20 mins at lunch time.

-What exercise/ways of tiring her out do you suggest? We play fetch and walk her regularly but she is still full of energy and does not sleep through the night


Thank you so much!

EDIT: When should we stop giving her water? We are reluctant to give her water at night but we also play with her outside after we eat (around 8pm to 9pm) and I don't want her to be thirsty!

[darkling_glory]

-Should we crate our 8-10 month lab at night? She is crated during the day from 8:30am-5:00pm, two days a week I go home to let her out and play with her for about 20 mins at lunch time.

Yes, you should crate her at night. She's getting up at 3:30 because she knows you'll let her out. You are essentially telling her, "Hey! It's okay that you have to pee at 3:30 in the morning!"


-What exercise/ways of tiring her out do you suggest? We play fetch and walk her regularly but she is still full of energy and does not sleep through the night

If you're not already doing it, you should try to get up earlier and have a nice long walk early in the morning. Get some training treats to keep in your hand so you can redirect her and work on her leash training. That will definitely help.

Also, she might need some mental stimulation. You can try treat balls and puzzle toys to help tire her out mentally as well as physically.

[osulori]

Should you crate her at night? Right now, hell yes. If she can't go all night without an accident and is still chewing stuff up she most certainly needs to be crated at night, both for her safety and the safety of your furniture (and your sanity). My pit mix was a full on Captain Destructo at first who for about a month thought 3am was a great time to whine to go potty (he was also about 8-10 months old when we got him). As he got more settled in our home and my H got better about knowing when the dog peed last (he's up later than I am and does the last potty trip) and therefore when to ignore him when he whined, the middle of the night potty break stopped. For chewing stuff...we honestly got real good at keeping stuff out of his reach and closing the bedroom/bathroom doors. If I did catch him with something he wasn't supposed to have, I would take it from him and give him something that was acceptable to chew on, like one of his toys. We started being able to leave him out of his crate at night approx 5 months after we adopted him, and full time about 9 months later...the dog I never thought could be trusted. So there IS hope.

My biggest suggestions would be some serious puppyproofing, and consider tethering her to you at home so you can catch any puppy shenanigans right off the bat and redirect to an appropriate activity. Don't feel guilty for crating her at night-there are plenty of happy, healthy dogs who are crated while their parents are at work and need (or prefer) to be crated at night for their own safety.

To tire her out, a puzzle toy may be a good idea to help her burn some energy through mental stimulation. I like the kind that you can put the treats in and the dog has to figure out how to get the treats out through the little holes in the toy-my two LOVE that, I just can't remember the name of the stupid toy As I'm sure you know, though, labs in general have a TON of energy so you could definitely have your hands full for a while!

[setsail1999]

I would definitely crate her during the night if she is not resting and having accidents.

As for the chewing, I'm with the pp...try tethering for a bit. When she makes a move to an item off limits just got "ahah!" and redirect to a specific chew toy.

Walking...my little 25lb mix is a horrible leash walker. I ended up trying an ezwalk harness and it really helped. later when you have time and are in a low distraction environment I would work on loose lead walking. There are a couple of different ways to do this. One way is to stop and only move when the pressure it relieved. This didn't work at all with my girl so I went back to having her at my side, taking one step and rewarding immediately if she stayed at my side. Any time that I can't work or focus on loose lead walking I use the harness to make sure that she doesn't continue to reward herself with pulling.

Exercise....I have border collies and I refuse to spend my entire life running them so we work A LOT on calm behavior. Honestly, if you spend all of your time playing running a dog you only end up with a crazy dog with more endurance lol. At home after you play with her (so she is a little calmer) keep her tethered to you. Ignore any digging at you, rolling, barking, any hyper active or "busy" behavior. When she gets bored and starts just laying there or rocking from hip to hip calmly drop a treat on the floor. don't praise, don't act excited. Just calmly drop the treat. Extend the time between treating the more you work on it. This helps teach them that calm behavior is also rewarding. People tend to ignore their dogs when calm and only interact (both in positive and negative attention) when the dogs are aroused and hyper so they come to think that is an appropiate way to act. If she gets over excited over you having treats just hide them and wait her out.

When she asked to pee at night just take her out and be as boring as possible. Don't speak to her, don't pet her, just clip the leash, potty and then back to bed (or crate). This way she can learn that nighttime is super boring and hopefully settle quickly. I wouldn't do the praising etc that you would normally do at night if you are house breaking. Save that for during the day.

Tiring her out....ohh...my favorite! (like I said...two border collies lol). Right now you are just physically working her. I would mix in a lot of mental work like impulse control exercises, trick training, obedience work and interactive games like fetch. Impulse control exercises can be like not bolting through an open door, leaving food on the floor etc. Work on bolting at the door by standing on one side on an interior door. Open slowly and quickly close and reward. Once she is looking at you instead of showing interest in the door start opening it wider and reward. After getting the door to almost open make a step towards the door and then immediately back up and treat on the inside. Take a step out the door and then jog backwards and reward on the inside. Dogs love the idea of an open door and often can't stop themselves so this teachs them that the inside of the door is more rewarding than what is on the other side. You'll be amazed at how tired they get when you work their brains.

[DorkFish]

-Should we crate our 8-10 month lab at night? She is crated during the day from 8:30am-5:00pm, two days a week I go home to let her out and play with her for about 20 mins at lunch time. Yes, crate her at night. When my dogs were puppies they were crated at night and during the day while we were gone. To make up for it, we tried to be home in the evenings to give them time out of the crate and exercise.

-What exercise/ways of tiring her out do you suggest? We play fetch and walk her regularly but she is still full of energy and does not sleep through the night Some of that is age thing and they can grow out of it.

[njhousewife]

We just adopted a black lab and are facing similar issues. Obedience school helped us, as well as enrolling him in a nose training class. We play the "box game" or tupperware game a lot, where I hide treats in boxes filled with water bottles and he has to figure out how to get it out. I have to watch him carefully because he will rip the box, but he knows not to swallow it. Also we have a Kong toy that we fill with treats and he has to figure out how to get it out. Our local pet store sells elk (i think) antlers and he'll chew that thing for an hour by himself.

The dogpark always makes ours wiped out. Also try jogging instead of walking, or if you aren't a runner, you can get a doggie backpack that you lighting fill that she can wear during walks to tire her out.

Hope this helps!!

[redheadbaker]

May 16, 2012 17:12:21 GMT -5 njhousewife said:

The dogpark always makes ours wiped out. Also try jogging instead of walking, or if you aren't a runner, you can get a doggie backpack that you lighting fill that she can wear during walks to tire her out.

It's advised to wait until dogs are 2 years old to run with them -- otherwise you risk damaging their growing joints.

[justaname]

Yes do not jog with your dog as he is too young. Definitely crate him at night. Also if you can find somewhere close to you, I definitely recommend finding a place where you can take him swimming. That is by far the most efficient way to wear my lab out and she LOVES it. Playing fetch in the water = what they were bred for.

[njhousewife]

May 16, 2012 18:28:38 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

May 16, 2012 17:12:21 GMT -5 njhousewife said:

The dogpark always makes ours wiped out. Also try jogging instead of walking, or if you aren't a runner, you can get a doggie backpack that you lighting fill that she can wear during walks to tire her out.

It's advised to wait until dogs are 2 years old to run with them -- otherwise you risk damaging their growing joints.

Thanks for this info! I had never heard this and want to keep our little guy safe!

[mariesd]

We just got a 1-year-old dog 6 weeks ago. I definitely hear you on everything you are talking about! I read a couple dog training books right away, and one thing I remember is one trainer saying that a lot of times, dogs adopted from a shelter have a TON of bundled up energy when you get them, because they've been crated SO much and not given as much attention/discipline/etc. They recommended to walk them as much as possible those first few weeks to get all that excess out.

I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems true for ours. That, or our dog is already calming down to our level a bit. We used to walk her for over an hour a day; now we're cutting back and she doesn't seem to mind at all.

Also, my dog only this week started sleeping through the night. I know that's not going to be true for EVERY dog, but just remember ... some of these behaviors are going to wear off within the first few weeks, once she gets to know the routine. Just last week I started doing what a PP said ... if she gets up in the night, I just tell her to go, then bring her right back to bed. I don't give her a treat like I normally do for going outside. So she has no incentive to want to go out then, and she has now gone 5 nights without waking me up. Amazing!

I also enrolled her in dog training right away at my local Petsmart, and it's made a difference. She's way behind all the other dogs of course, since when she started she didn't even know her name, let alone commands, but it's helped her socially and helped her bond with me. And tires her out from just that hour of activity so she always slept through that night!

I also take her to a doggie daycare once a week. I might go up to twice a week in the future. It's about $20 a day for me, and SO worth it. I know she's having a fun day and she comes home sleepy and cuddly instead of crazy.

Oh, and after two weeks, my dog started actually liking her crate ... now she goes to it automatically when she senses I'm about to go to work or when she's just tired and wants to chill. So give the crate time -- your dog might warm up to it!

[mortomo]

We have an almost 6 mo old rat terrier and he loves his crate. He's in it from about 7:30 a.m. until around 3:00 and then again from about 10:30 p.m until 5:00 a.m. He gets plenty of exercise in between those times so he's ready to be crated when we either need to leave or it's bed time. We have found that bringing him to the dog park has done wonders for our sanity! 30-60 mins running around with other dogs wears him out. Obedience training does too...he goes once a week for 45 mins.

I also agree with using puzzles. Our puppy loves puzzles and I believe that helps him calm down too. Putting a shirt on him also calms him down. We put it on him at night after we've exercised him because it seems that he needs permission to lay down and take it easy. He now associates wearing a shirt with calming down.

After having him for 3 mos, the last 2 weeks we've finally been able to sleep later than 4:00 a.m.! On the weekends he's been giving us until about 7:00 a.m., which is a big improvement.