Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Got a female black lab, just under a year. She stays in both an indoor or outdoor kennel unless it is bitterly cold. I provide her a beds or blankets in both and she shreds them. I cant keep going through blankets and beds. The vet told me I need to just pull them out and give her the metal pan and hard plastic floor to sleep on, to avoid her swallowing any stuffing and getting into bigger problems. I can leave her unattended in the house for a couple hours at a time and she just lays on her couch, so its not seperation anxiety, but when she is locked in a kennel for up to 5 hours at a time I assume she gets bored. What can I do to alleviate this problem. I hate taking away her bedding because she wont be very comfortable.

Toys, ideas, what to do to help her boredom? I wont give her rawhide or soft chew toys unattened for choking fears.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Maybe she just needs for you to work her more.
A tired dog is a good dog.


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RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Maybe more exercise is the answer, but I have the same problem you have. Mine sleeps on the bare plastic pan at the bottom of the crate. Any kind of bedding in there gets shreded and I wouldn't want it to cause a blockage. Mine is 18 weeks old, I cannot trust him to be unsupervised out of his crate at all for the time being.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

This is most likely your first lab...

I have owned 37 labs over the last 40 years.
ALL of them went through the 2 year "lab phase". For atleast 2 years your dog will Chew EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. I have had dogs chew on the corner of the wooden dog houses in their kennels. I have had the hole of the dog house, where dog enters "enlarged", I will take a picture for you to show you. These dogs will chew for 2 years, then they just stop. Occasionally you will get a bored adult dog that will destroy something, this happens randomly. I had a 6 year old dog chew up his bed for no particular reason one night, he hadnt chewed anything in years...

You can work them all you want, my dogs are worked 5 or 6 days a week. The under 2 year olds will still chew. Its just something you have to accept.

Question: Are your kennels on a concrete slab? If so, get Hard plastic iglooor wood houses, put cedar chips in there as bedding.Im not going to saytheywont eat the chips, but I havent had one eat chips ever. Spray the outside corners and such with the bitter apple no chew spray. This should discourage *some* chewing.

You will reach a point where the dog settles down and you can have a nice cloth bed for them, but even then, you might get a wild hair and the dog will chew it to bits.

Good Luck.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

You can see the original curve of the cut towards the top, I had one dog chew that much wood out of it in a matter of 2 days maybe. Probably 12 years ago, one of my best dogs too, "Bishop".



By the way, thats 5/8" plywood.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

One of Bishops sons,from 2001. Call name "scout". On his sires old house.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Beautiful looking Lab!!!!!!!!!!

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Thanks!
6 years old. excellent marker, strong swimmer, good casts, hardheaded as all get out.
70ish lbs. Very fast. He's not my best dog ever, but hes my best right now.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

LMFAO about the " hard headed as all get. " Aren't they all?? gOT AN INDEPENDENT STREAK A MILE WIDE, BUT i WOULD HAVE NO OTHER!!

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Usually a male thing, only had one or two females that were not submissive. Only had one or two males that were not hard headed!

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Yep, first lab, she gets a minimum of 2 hours exercise per day. Its my excuse to get in shape for elk this fall.

Her outdoor kennel is on concrete patio blocks and her house is elevated on a wood pallet which she does not bother.

I was wondering about the wood chips or even straw? I cant believe she would eat either of those, but if she would, would either of them cause any harm?

Thanks guys

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Mine likes chewing on straw... have some spread out in the yard and he'll grab a mouth full now and again.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

No, probably wont hurt her, infact she will most likely barf up the chips or straw in a few hours. I've had cedar chip bedding for years and years and have never had a problem with them, plus they make the dogs smell better.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

My old lab needed chew toys, big bones from the butcher, and a kong toy loaded with peanut butter.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

EODLT pretty much summed it up. My Lab has rawhides inside the houseand out in his kennel, tennis balls in both, other toys in the house. His dog house is a one of those igloos and he has a insulated blanket which he doesn't bother.

Myself and the rest of the family play with him continously, I work with him every day on his need to do's. he will not bother anything in the house except his toys and rawhides.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

Lot,s of play time I was told not to use straw as it can cause breathing problums from the dust as can hay I don,t know but I never had to use it any way.And for tennis ball,a I was told by the vet that the fuzz on them can wear their enamel off their teeth I quit letting the dogs have them the the russel was chewing the fuzz off of them and it was every ware I let them have those orange road hockey balls or lacrosse balls last longer and easy to see when cutting the grass.

RE: Tips to keep my lab occupied?
 

I always liked the Kong toys for dogs.
Indestructable even for a Lab. Thick rubber wierd shapes, but they are cool. Only thing I dont like about toys and chews is that they can, in my experience, begin some hard-mouth. When the dog grabs something, sometimes they automatically crunch down like its their ball or chew thingy. Thats not what you want, so I usually limited toy time to times when I had strict control over it, meaning they would be rewarded for a good session with the toy, then in a few minutes, I took the toyback.