Mum needs help with her dog

[DoggieInTheWindow]

My mum is a fit and active nearly-70-year-old.

About 18 months ago she got a labrador puppy (she's had labs before and is a lovely and experienced dog owner), and all was going well until a few months ago when some serious family problems have left her stressed, exhausted and not really coping. She has now become a carer for a relative and this takes up a lot of her time.

DDog is basically well looked after and healthy and happy, but really boistrous and his behaviour is suffering because DM's discipline with him has seriously faltered. My mum looks ill with the stress of looking after him, but would be devastated to rehome him. She snapped at me when I tentatively suggested this.

I live in a different city, am a single parent, and am useless with dogs, so can't really help out much.

Any ideas?

TIA

[imabusybee]

Could she get a dog walker to give him a good walk every day, tire him out and reinforce training?

[caz1010]

Where is the dog roughly?

[merrymouse]

Cinnamon trust?

[Scuttlebutter]

There are professional doggy day care and dog walkers in every town and city now that she can use.

She should look for professional insurance, equivalent of CRB check if she is giving them a key, check references and if they are a doggy day care, they should be registered with local Council.

Even if woof goes for day care once or twice a week, she'll find it helps enormously in taking the pressure off.

I would avoid the informal route of giving a tenner to a local teenager - no insurance and they are unlikely to be able to maintain consistent behaviour with a strong, bouncy Lab.

[WeAllHaveWings]

As an experienced dog owner she'll know if she is not meeting the dogs needs and she needs to face up to that.

Either, get a dog walker service daily to take pressure off to walk him.

Contact SS to see if any help is available for relative to take some of the pressure off her and give her time to walk/train the dog (which should be a relaxing activity)

Or if she can no longer meet the dogs needs without affecting her own health face up to rehoming, hopefully a 2 year old well trained and socialised lab from an experienced owner would be quickly snapped up.

[Hoppinggreen]

She couid try Borrowmydoggy.
I know some people aren't comfortable with the concept but we borrow 2 dogs and take really good care of them

[Carpaccio]

I agree with the dog walking. The Cinnamon Trust is a very good idea as well.

I would get some of those mental stimulation type of toys where the dog has to get treats out of the toy. Something like a Buster Cube or a Kong Genius Leo, Kong Wobbler or similar.

If your mum has a garden, she could spread the dog's kibble in the grass and let him find it using his nose.

The toys and searching for food are likely to tire the dog out more than running around/walking.

A stuffed Kong is good for when needing some quiet time.

For training, I would suggest that she does a little bit of training a few times a day. 5 minutes here and there is fine. If it's new commands or he's a bit rusty (or just easily distracted), just do the training in the house or in the garden. I'd say to focus on the basic stuff that will be helpful - sit, stay, recall. If he doesn't walk nicely on the lead, maybe it's worth teaching him to heel so she can give him that command when he pulls.
As a bonus, the training should also tire him out.