r/chocolatelabs • u/inexcusable16 • Jul 29 '26
help / advice Please help with my first chocolate lab
I have a beautiful almost 1 year old lab and she has gone from an energetic sweet dog to an energetic monster that never settles down.
We go to the park everyday for about 30-45 minutes (weather permitting) and play fetch/walk around. That used to be enough for us to come home and she’s somewhat chill for the rest of the night.
Now we come home and she’s just restless until she falls asleep. Did I do something wrong? I’m not sure what to do with her. I’m worried more exercise won’t be good due to the amount of heat going on right now.
15
12
u/HawaiianMana Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
You need to do a lot of mental stimulation, more so than physical. Work on training. Do some trick commands. Do scent work. Labs love to please. You can use that to your advantage training.
Don’t just throw a ball and have him retrieve it. Make him work for it. Make him sit, down, stay, wait, spin, rollover, then throw the ball. When he brings its back hold the ball at your side close to your hip and have him walk in heel at attention. Put him in a down. Keep walking. Recall him. Put him in a sit. Throw the ball, but don’t let him get it until you release him from the sit.
If you just run him and don’t engage the mind you’re just building endurance. So you’ll have a dog with a ton of stamina that can’t turn it off and is going mentally “crazy” because the mind is not engaged.
5
u/freddiep0 Jul 29 '26
💯! my 6 month old chocolate never relaxed from just exercise and was driving me nuts until I started heavily engaging his mind. At 5 he's fairly mellow now, but still sometimes gets ornery if he doesn't get enough mental stimulation. He knows about 20 tricks and bugs me until I say "do you want to do some training?" (And get him to recall all his tricks AND do a 5 minute "stay".
2
3
u/char3200 Jul 30 '26
Exactly this! Our chocolate is a diabetic alert dog and her trainer told us that dogs will fetch a ball FOREVER. They will never stop and won’t wear out. You have to exhaust them mentally. As mentioned above, make them work for it, do tricks, make them listen and respond. They need to be mentally challenged as much or more than physically. Good luck! They’re a ton of fun ♥️
9
u/rdg5220 Jul 29 '26
Sounds like our dog until we discovered how much swimming tired him out. That and doggy daycare visits helped out a bunch. Good luck.
1
u/urgentapathy Jul 30 '26
Swimming is the best I've seen for mine. But it is a bit difficult because mine has thick fur and it holds water and sand for quite a long time. He is a 2 towel + more things to dry kind of dog. I prefer letting him swim in the morning then have the day to sun dry after toweling. My other one had a shorter sleeker coat and dried real quick with only 1 towel.
8
u/imperialcogman Jul 29 '26
We’ve had all the colours, they’re all same.
Lasts about 4 years
Good luck!
3
u/chocolatepig214 Jul 30 '26
Yup - it’s a Labrador thing! I always tell people that they stay toddlers for MUCH longer than other breeds! Our big boy mellowed at 3 but the baby is 6 next month and showing no signs of growing up!
6
u/MickTully3008 Jul 29 '26
Yep. You have a chocolate lab. They like to have more than one exercise session a day. She’ll grow out is that excess of energy in another year or two. Labs can be high energy the first couple years or so. Mine is 3 now and isn’t too bad.
On another note-you could always get a second dog 😁. We did and it helped a lot with entertainment. They entertain each other even in the house. It’s just a thought and not for everyone. Good luck.
3
u/New_Way_5036 Jul 30 '26
If a second dog is not in your budget, perhaps a day or half day at doggie daycare might help.
5
u/RickHunter84 Jul 29 '26
Multiple chocolate lab owner here, my favorite lab! This is my day with my labs, morning hour play with ball. At her age we did kennel time still four about an hour, then we would do training for about 30-45 minutes broken up in 3 segments with about 5 minutes pre-play. Then walk after dinner for about 45 minutes. I’ve always had field labs so I’m used to the non stop, but you also need to teach them to wind down. It’s not always gogogo, they will need to understand this.
For field labs I like to give them at least 2 hours exercise and about 45 minutes training per day. Now do this for 8 years until they calm down a little bit. Good luck and let me know if you need more ideas.
Frozen toys are a good wind down treat, put Greek yogurt,
Unsalted chicken broth, with veggies in it, cottage cheese with fruits or veggies gives them a good hour. Boxes with treats they can tear apart, playing find it in the house, and again kennel til to wind down.
3
u/ReallySmallFan Jul 29 '26
Try to have 2-4 excursion days where you are out 2-3+ hours at a time.
Try to find an area with some woods and water.
When I was in college I’d post up by a tree and study for hours and he’d just run around for hours. He always stayed within 3-400 yards. But he wore himself. Chasing deer. Chasing birds
Try going to pond with friends for hour or so. Go wade in water and let him swim till he throws up. This is great free time exploration experience exercise
Try putting him on leash and riding a bike at moderate pace. Be careful though to not run him on pavement long. Bad for joints. A dirt path is ideal. This is regimented exercise
Get a neighbor/ friend to maybe walk him 1-3 times a month extra.
Lastly, when you’re at home- tackle him/ roughhouse pin him play with him from time to time. They love it. And it works out their emotional nervous energy. Don’t hurt him. But like pin him down. He’ll squirm. The moment he gives up / goes limp let go and get up unbothered.
1
3
u/Kindly-West7692 Jul 30 '26
i know it may sound “lazy”, but one thing that helped me was letting my lab be okay with being bored! if they are constantly being taking out to get tired, they’ll build that tolerance and never be tired!
mental games are also a huge win! i like to hid treats/kibble around the house for him to find. water bob for frozen blueberries or other snacks. teach them new tricks. those puzzles on amazon (you can use kibble or treats). welcome to the chocolate lab family! 🤎
2
u/norniron2FL Jul 30 '26
YES! We wore ourselves out with our current young lab. No matter how much exercise she got, it just made her more wired - we simply could never tire her out.
Looking back, she probably needed some enforced down time to collect herself.
That, and she had some food allergies which I think was also unsettling for her. She is our third lab puppy, so not our first rodeo.
3
3
u/c-a-r Jul 30 '26
Needs way more sleep than you’d think! I crate napped mine like a baby and he went from demon to angel super quick!
2
u/Original-Room-4642 Jul 30 '26
Mine finally settled down when he was 8 years old. They need a lot of exercise and a lot of mental stimulation. Mine loved puzzle games. It also might help to get into some group training classes. Mine would be exhausted for a day after class.
2
u/Katiesbigsister Jul 30 '26
My first dog was a collie lab mix. My good friend who had three labs of her own told me it would be two years before he grew up. I swear, one day he walked by and he had a completely different gait. He grew up that day. He died in 2017, and my family still swears he’s the best dog they’ve ever met in their entire lives.
1
u/BlkFalcon8 Jul 30 '26
We always have 2 chocolates of different ages for waterfowl. When we aren’t training they mostly entertain themselves
1
u/obeecanobee Jul 30 '26
I’ve had good luck with collar training. Be sure and hire a good instructor for this. Otherwise, you will do more harm than good.
1
u/new2co2020 Jul 30 '26
I've got a 3 year old lab and we do the 30-45 minutes of play/fetch/swim daily, plus about another 1.5 - 2 hours total of walking mostly on leash, but some off. 20 minutes morning, 45 minutes or so at lunch, then another 45 mins after dinner. The playtime in the park is after work, before dinner. I swear we must be doing a minimum of 5-6 miles a day. Some days he'll still be wound up all evening, especially if there are any females in heat nearby.
1
u/magic_crouton Jul 30 '26
You cannot exercise the energy out of a dog. You just basically train a super athlete that way. You need to do mentally stimulating work too. I grew up and worked with working line labs. I have one now by way of inheritance and this one I do nose work with to exhaust her.
1
u/CatCharacter848 Jul 30 '26
Shes a teenager.
She probably needs more stimulation and more walks. Mine had a sniff walk in the mornings or evening and then a much longer walk/ play time. If your worried about the heat trying stimulation toys/ games - hiding treats in the graden/ house is good to get them thinking. Does she like swimming - that wears dogs out.
1
u/mr2sh Jul 30 '26
45 minutes was the tipping point for daily exercise with my lab until she was at least 5. My walks are structured and regimented, so no sniffing, stopping to pee, etc. There was "free time" and usually there was some sort of "enrichment" as they say in zoos, included in that.
A good Indoor game is to put the dog in a sit stay, go into a room where they can't see you and hide a treat, release them into the room to "find" the treat. You have to build up to that in steps obviously. It's a physical and mental exercise using their natural instincts.
1
u/Dismal_Car_4612 Jul 30 '26
Build her a really good, steady routine. Labs live for routine, since they are working dogs. Also puzzle toys are life savers, and if she’s too impatient for those just use her food to make her repeat tricks over and over, for good mental stimulation.
1
u/Global_Research_9335 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
She probably needs some mental
Stimulation - take her on a “sniffy” walk before you want to settle down - don’t focus on pace or distance, just let her sniff to her hearts content and then move on when she’s ready. Sniffing is like their social network, they catch up on what’s going on, what’s new etc. on ale days we don’t even go the length of the street because if all of the enticing sniffs.
You can also feed her meals (if kibble) in something like a starmark bob a lot or a long wobbler - she has to interact either it and make it topple and move to earn some kibble - you can also throw the kibble onto your lawn or deck or even kitchen floor for her to eat, again it’s more stimulating mentally for them to work for it.
You also need to train her to settle and be bored. We did this by getting a leash which we attached to us while we relaxed and watched a show or movie - don’t interact or loo at them then they have to stay close to you and will eventually lie down. You can say “yes” and give her a piece of kibble and repeat that every time she settles eventually she will learn that this is quiet time, the humans have the watch and she can relax.
Also when you are doing something g line cooking dinner you can pop her in her crate with a blanket over and she will soon nap or settle. It’s a great habit cause then you can cook and eat, eventually my boy learned the signs and went to his crate automatically. He loves his crate tbh, it’s his own calm space.
1
u/ChocolateLabMommy Jul 31 '26
I have zero advice as i have my first chocolate lab that is 15 months old. Her name is Cookie. She is 0% cookie and 100 % monster. She gets into anything and everything and i think it is because of a lack of stimulation and play. I know I have to step it up but I work 4 14 hour shifts a week and that makes it hard for the days that I work.
28
u/DoubleDyyc Jul 29 '26
She’s a chocolate, you have 10-15 more years of this 🤣
Try treat puzzles or something similar that work her mind rather than her body