Think I am experiencing the spotty oik stage!!

T

TayloredEq

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I think Bear has become a teenager!

He has now destroyed his dog bed - a special therapuetic one as he was growing so quick to help stop him from being too sore (£120 to buy new).
Last night he also destroyed my ariats.
This morning he has had an evening bag.

I don't think it had been helped by the fact that since the lady who claimed he bit her came through he can only go outside if being watched and under supervision.

Also up at the business he is fine if on his own, but as soon as the lab comes up she takes him off exploring. they have been gone for as long as 4 hours and been found on the road a few miles away. So now when they are both up there together he has to be kept tied up or shut in a stable.

We are in the process of putting up some secure fencing to give him a safe area he can play in where he is contained so in the future it shouldn't be quite such an issue. and I have just gone out and bought him a bone the size of my arm. (He regularly has marrow bones from the butcher but these stink and aren't good in the house).

Nor has it been helped by me being ill the last few days and so not able to spend much time with hime.

Anyhow, I'm going to take him for a walk now and see if that helps, but he is still only 11 months old so I am restricted with how much exercise I can give him.

Sorry, I'm just having a bit of a whinge!! Guess I also need to pull my finger out and start doing a bit more training with him also and then hopefully that will exhaust him mentally.

any other tips very much appreciated....
 
Kong, bones, clicker training and a good secure fence! Remember mental activity can tire them out the same if not more than physical
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He definitely sounds bored. At 11 months he can take a fair bit of exercise, I know he has probably still got a bit of growing to do but he can certainly take a decent walk and as much free exercise as he wants. When I am at home Evie has the run of the garden. If for any reason she is restricted during the day she is a nightmare in the evening, just won't settle. Re the foot path problem, is there any way you can fence off a walkway for the footpath to run through(deer fencing is quite good, high but dog proof) then he can have free range in the rest of the garden. I am not a fan of tying dogs up, can sometimes create aggression problems, but if you have to a running line is a better option, and would again allow him to exercise more. Failing that, pop him on the horse walker
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Just back from a walk on the cliffe.

Fencing is being started next week in the garden.

He can have free running at the business as long as the lab is not about, but quite often he will just lie down. We had him on the lunge line, except he has chewed through it now 6 times so he has to be on a chain.

Puppy classes will hopefully again soon which will help to channel him slightly, and once the fencing is done it will be better.
 
Definitely agree you can up his exercise at this stage and the most important thing is to make him THINK!
B was a nightmare when he hit that age too.

I hit a eureka moment a few months ago - I can take B out in the mountains and forests for four hours, and he is ready to do it all again when we come home.
30-min bursts of training in the field? Knackered.
Lots of heelwork, downstays, retrieves, jumping (leave it to over a year for Bear before you jump him, nothing too big until he hits 18mths)

I am just back from a walk and I was doing things like burying his ball-on-a-rope in the moss and making him work out how to get it. Hanging it on a branch so he had to go up for it. Putting it in the stream close to a steep bank so he had to figure out a route down to it.
Making him follow my hand signals if he'd lost track of where I'd thrown it.

I am looking out the window at him now and he is zonked out, even though we were only out for half an hour
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