Mary

Thanks! We already do most of the above already, sounds like we just need to give it more time to sort itself out.

My 4 month old pup is waking up at anywhere from 3:00 to 4:30. But lately, it is more like waking up around 3. We take her out to potty and put her back in crate and she will only settle in for about 15 minutes and then she fusses and just will not settle. She ramps up the distress until we are clearly wide awake and many many minutes like half an hour and longer have gone by. She gets put to bed about 9 pm. We cannot possibly stay up any later. We are not getting enough sleep. She is falling asleep on her own about 8 pm before she gets put in crate. I believe she is getting enough enrichment and play etc. all of her meals are given in kongs, kibble balls, finding food games , etc. she has a couple training episodes a day, she plays outside, goes on sniff walks. We take her on short walks. One days she has puppy play and class she doesn’t seem to sleep longer and that playing and class really makes her tired as evidenced by her being overtired that night. She never has slept past say 5am. Even when I had to wake up and take her out at midnight ,she would only go back in crate once more time before she had had enough. Any tips? Or do we just need her to get a little older? Also, how much walking exercise do you think is ok for her? She is a lab. I have read the 5 minute per month guideline but I see and know people who do more with their sporting breed dogs.

Thank you so much for the great explanation and link! I appreciate it greatly? !

Just so happens yesterday I noticed older dog had a very red itchy ear. So I am treating that after a call to my vet. He was at the vet at beginning of summer,clean bill of health. He seems to move around without any signs of stiffness etc and still at the age of 9 gets the zoomies. I think he is correcting her because she is on the leash and is she is super excited to go out and he is too. And I have not been a good at figuring that out but I started working with him to have a more calm exit out the door once it opens . He doesn’t get excited before the door opens,it’s after. I this morning had him sit while I opened door and puppy and I went out first and then he followed. There were no issues. Should I hold her back and let him go first? Puppy after getting corrected has different responses. Sometimes she barks at him, sometimes she doesn’t seem to care, sometimes she does seem apologetic, a couple times she has ducked her head and afraid but she has never rolled over or peed.

I have 9 yr old male lab and 13 week female lab pup. I am needing guidance as how to gauge how things are progressing between them. I’ve had pup for 6 weeks. I would say that older dog is at a tolerating stage with pup. He frequently corrects her thruout the day. His corrections vary from a lip twitch to a snark. A snark being baring teeth and making noise but has not bitten her. He does this mostly as far as I can tell,when she gets too close when she is being too puppyish.He will not allow her touch him. For example, in the morning when she is happy to see him, he is not welcoming of her puppy exuberance. Another instance is going out doors, it is all just too much excitement. He will though when she is chewing quietly on a toy or sleeping on floor choose to sleep with in inches of her. Of course, she does very rude things to him like bark at him and want to jump on him, I totally get it. With adult dogs, he has always been extremely tolerant of behavior he is not a fan of, he is not very interested in playing with adult dogs but on occasion he does meet one that he hits it off with and will play. I’ve rarely seen him correct an adult dog it’s happened a couple times and it was warranted and has never bitten. I am taking each dog separately outside to train and play.Pup goes to puppy kinder. I confess to not addressing some behaviors of older dog like barking for attention and demanding. But working on that. But he also has things he does very well. This dog was a handful when he was a pup, extremely busy, hard to calm down,He does however LOVE training. I am trying to treat reward anytime I see him letting her be near and I treat her as well.