behaviour

[Jessica]

wondering if someone can help, i have a 5 month old purebred labrador boy. Every night him and my other lab girl are allowed in the house, and he non stops barks in our face. He is fed watered and has been to the toilet so he is not needing anything. He also has a tonne of toys around to play with so we are unsure of what to do about the behaviour. Nothing seems to be working. 

[persephone]

Hi, and welcome
 

12 hours ago, Jessica said:

Nothing seems to be working. 

It can be frustrating ...can you describe  what you do , and his response ?

[Rebanne]

how often are the dogs allowed into the house? If only at night he might be wanting some attention from the people. He is only young. I'd try playing some indoor games or training (or outdoors) before asking him/expecting him to immediately go into quiet lay down mode.

[Loving my Oldies]

If your dogs are outside all day and “allowed” into the house only at night, they are being deprived of so much that they need to be happy and adjusted.   Dogs should be family.  Family isn’t shut outside.    

[Little Gifts]

My first thought was he has a lot of energy bottled up that he doesn't know what to do with and it is bubbling over in your presence. Is he regularly walked off his own property, allowed to sniff, run around in different directions and wear himself out physically? Have you thought about mental enrichment options to wear him out mentally (good for dogs who can't be walked off property regularly for various reasons)? There are things such as snuffle mats and other treat dispensing puzzles that worked well for my dog (she hated leaving the property but still needed to use up her energy).

 

Just having a playmate for your dog in their own yard and house is not enough for all dogs. Nor is playing with them at home and leaving them a bundle of toys either. Some need extra stimulation and release, particularly outside their usual environment. They will develop more poor behaviours if you don't find a way to address this now and then you will be punishing them for those bad behaviours but the dog will still be frustrated from a lack of stimulation and continue to misbehave. At the very least try taking him for a walk where he can sniff and pursue what appeals to him and then see how he behaves at home after that.

[Two Best Dogs!]

I reckon as soon as you get home - play with him yourself. Don’t wait for him to start barking at you for it. Use the toys, toss treats in the garden, tug, fetch. It’s likely he just wants your attention and at five months old he kind of needs it too. He’s only a dumb little baby after all. 

 

When he is later quiet after you have played, give him lots of calm pats or treats so that he can learn quiet time is also nice and fun. Have strategically placed bowls of treats out of dog reach around the house so you can quickly give him one when you notice him being quiet. 

[Jessica]

1 hour ago, Loving my Oldies said:

If your dogs are outside all day and “allowed” into the house only at night, they are being deprived of so much that they need to be happy and adjusted.   Dogs should be family.  Family isn’t shut outside.    

my dogs are not deprived, they are in the house whenever my husband and i are home.

[PANDI-GIRL]

My  little Poodle barks at me when she wants to  play with toys & have me join in,    usually more likely she just sits & stares at me till I get up & play,   so your pup is wanting to play with you,  which is hard if you have been out at work all day,   He is excited your home & wants your attention to play,  you can make a plan on how to give him more play with both of his humans   

[Tassie]

1 hour ago, Jessica said:

My dogs are not deprived, they are in the house whenever my husband and i are home.

Oh that's good to hear.    So my question is … does your pup bark at you at other times when he's in the house?  Or just at this specific time?

And a few follow up questions …. what do you expect the dogs to do when they come inside in the evening?  

What do you expect them to do when they're inside at other times?

And for me .. the biggie … do you or your husband spend time with each dog one on one?  teaching tricks?  teaching other training?  playing with the dogs?   Inside?  or outside?

 

Thinking as I type .. this could actually be your pup's crazy zoomies time (in his mind) .. when my BC girl was younger, the evening was her completely crazy time.   And that was even though she'd had plenty of attention and training and play at other times of the day.  (She grew out of that … the crazy time is now the morning.)

 

So it might help to think about it this way.  Your pup is doing something he finds very rewarding .. barking at you.  So what could you do to replace that with a behaviour which is also rewarding to him (because you will pay him for it) .. but is also acceptable to you.   So that might be a bit of trick training - for treats  … and then teaching him to settle on a particular mat or dog bed … gradually building up the time he can stay there.   If you're doing that, you need to have a 'release' word to give him permission to get off.  That can be the same word you use for permission to go out a door, come in a door, get out of the car .. etc.     You would be gradually building up the time he stays on his mat  starting with quite a short time. .. 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Tassie
ETA link

[Dogsfevr]

He does need something & chances are your getting frustrated with the behaviour .
Sounds like a pup enjoying the quality time but unsure of what you expect from him .Fed,watered & toilet means nothing .
Like others have said what "quality time" as far as activities does the pup get or is the pup activities simply based on the other dog being  there ?

Edited February 25, 2019 by Dogsfevr

[Malamum]

On 2/20/2019 at 7:37 PM, Jessica said:

wondering if someone can help, i have a 5 month old purebred labrador boy. Every night him and my other lab girl are allowed in the house, and he non stops barks in our face. He is fed watered and has been to the toilet so he is not needing anything. He also has a tonne of toys around to play with so we are unsure of what to do about the behaviour. Nothing seems to be working. 

Congratulations on your new puppy.  We have a 6 month old lab boy so are going though the same phases as you are.

 

On 2/21/2019 at 11:51 AM, Loving my Oldies said:

If your dogs are outside all day and “allowed” into the house only at night, they are being deprived of so much that they need to be happy and adjusted.   Dogs should be family.  Family isn’t shut outside.    

People have to go to work and a happy and adjusted dog is one that doesn't need to be attended to 24/7.  A dog that can't cope with some alone time is not well adjusted.

Dogs being outside during the day when their owners are at work does not mean the dog is being deprived or not being treated as part of the family.

 

On 2/21/2019 at 1:09 PM, Jessica said:

my dogs are not deprived, they are in the house whenever my husband and i are home.

Your situation sounds very similar to ours.  Our boy is outside during the day when we are at work and then we let him inside with us when we are at home.  He can't be trusted inside on his own at this age as he would just trash the place and our house is very open plan so we can't even limit his access to certain areas inside.  We have our in-laws living with us temporarily  so he is getting a bit more attention during the day at present but that will stop once they move out.

 

It doesn't sound like your puppy needs anything but he wants your attention and wants you to play with him.  Our boy gets crazy zoomies at night too and went though a stage of exhibiting similar behaviour to what you have described.   He gets plenty of walks, training time and play outside so we are teaching him that when inside with us it is time to be calm.  We are doing this by using a puppy pen, so he can be inside with us and part of what we are doing but he is not free to run amok and we are also working on his place training (which is like what Tassie described and linked to above) so that he is right there with us and getting interaction but he needs to be calm and chilled on his place.

 

My advice is to work with him and focus on what you want him to do not so much try and prevent him doing what you don't want him to do.  i.e. if he is doing the thing you want then he is busy doing that, so not doing the thing you don't want.