Has anyone else got a dog that never seems to get tired?

[Marne]

I knew having a lab x would mean lots of walks and training, we live in the country surrounded by fields so seemed doable but how ever much I walk and play ball he never seems to get tired.

School holidays are harder as its hard to walk him with the dd's (as they both have asd, no road sense and there are not many pavements here ), we have a huge green out the front of our house so we go out there with his ball and spend an hour chucking it for him, he appears tired and his breathing is fast but as soon as he has had a drink he is back to his normal (full of beans) self and jumping around the house.

When its not the school holidays I walk him twice a day (a mile or so which includes lots of ball play/fetching) but he never seems to tire and rarely sleeps. He wakes at 6am full of beans and ready to go. I think if I walked him all day he would still be wide awake .

Could his diet be making him more hyper? we have had him on Chappie for a while as it was the only thing that did not upset his tummy (he has colitis), he has a intolerance to rice which makes it hard to find foods as most contain quite a lot of rice (he can tolerate a small amount), we have just started giving him a small amount of Chudleys (sp) dry food with his chappie, could this be making him more full of it?

Ideally I would be feeding him JWB or Burns but I just cant afford it right now (I have 2 dogs to feed and the lab x seems to eat a lot more than my other dog, it is costing me a lot more than I imagined). I would love to find a dry food that would agree with him but is not too expensive.

Any advice ?

[Tillypo]

Don't give him his dried food with his chappie feed them seperatly with at least 8 hours in between as boyh digest at different rates. It sounds as though you are giving him enough exercise it could just be the fact he is full of energy my fox hound is like him she will walk for miles and is still full of beans.

[smaths]

We use csjk9 dog food. They have allergy free variants depending on what your dog is sensitive to.
You buy in bulk so I suppose it is expensive up front, but there is a lot less crap in it so you feed smalller portions and it lasts ages. 2x 15kg sacks cost us £40 (it's cheaper to mainland uk, we have to pay £10 delivery to NI) but feeds our 2 working collies and 1 retriever X for 5 weeks - £2.60 per dog per week which I think is brilliant value.
As for tiring out the dog you maybe need to do mental games with him - finding hidden things and so on - retrieving is his breeding purpose after all. Our collies could run for miles all day, but spend 10 minutes rounding up sheep and they will sleep for hours.

[Lilcamper]

They need brain games to tire them out too. Feed from a kong wobbler, put kibble inside a cardboard box, in another box and wrap in paper. Let him work out how to get to the food. On nice days, chuck the food out in the garden and let him use his nose to find it.

[LadyTurmoil]

Try him on a raw meat diet for a few weeks. There may be additives in the tinned food/kibble that make him hyper. You can give him raw chicken wings/drumsticks/carcasses, chicken liver (once a week with other food), lamb ribs, other meaty bones etc. There's lots of stuff online to help. It costs about £1 a day for my foster dog who is 22kg - she gets about 600g a day overall (you need to go on 2.5-3% of dog's bodyweight). I only have a small size freezer and I bagged 10 days food and it all fitted in one drawer of freezer. You can also order online if you want (and have the room). Good luck!

[LadyTurmoil]

Also, a good bone will keep dog busy for about an hour - giving you some time off!

[Marne]

I like the box idea , we have a kong wobbler but he seems to empty it quite quickly and its so noisy on our wood floor.

I have just been to buy him some more food, going to give another brand a try (will mix with his chappie to begin with just in case it upsets his tummy. Bought him some bones too as they do keep him quiet for a while when im busy.

Are any of those puzzle toys (the ones you put food in) any good?

[Lilcamper]

These are very good www.nina-ottosson.com/

[Elliptic5]

I don't know about the food but I would certainly agree brain exercise is important - a small amount of time every day teaching him some dog dancing moves or finding hidden objects may help.
Routine is also important, he needs to understand there are times when he has to stay quiet even if not asleep. My latest lab was a nightmare as a puppy but as I was also studying for my degree he learnt to sit quiet whenever I was on the computer, something he does automatically now without any prompting.

[Dirtybadger]

As everyone else has said- mental stimulation. I'm assuming he's young? Much more exercise may be detrimental anyway. Is he panting because he's tired from chasing the ball or because he's got tonnes of adrenaline rushing through him? If the latter he'll probably come in and run around like a loon. Carry on playing fetch with him of course, I'm sure he loves it, but maybe try interspersing throwing the ball with sniffing out some treats or kibble (depending on what he'll be interested in), doing a bit of training/few tricks, focusing on you, etc. And of course going off for a sniff. Is he nose to the ground? My dog loves fetch so she has a few ball throws on our walks but her biggest reward after a couple of tricks or similar (or some heeling/good llw, whatever) is 'okay go sniff' and she can potter around with her nose down for a bit.

Cheaper than toys (although kong wobble is good) is scatter feeding (if you can, maybe just now and again) and giving him tastes inside a kong (you can freeze it once he 'gets it', and it'll take longer for him to eat it). Another thing some dogs like is just having to work to get their food out (I suppose like a wobbler but using different physical skills). When I give our dog her kong (frozen) in addition I occassionally wrap it in some newspaper and tea towels. She enjoys tearing the paper off and digging about in the towels.

Hide and seek games inside the house are good(or outside in garden I suppose). Our dog is a SBT so has different 'tastes' I imagine but she also loves digging in her sandpit to get her toys out and a good swim. She gets a stuffed toy (charity shop only and only under supervison) to dissect every now and again too- although probably more fulfilling for her than a lab maybe. It's a bit chilly now perhaps but if your dog likes the water (assuming here as lab x) finding somewhere safe for your dog to swim (retrieve toys?) would be good. Tire him out and good for him. Hydrotherapy pools may be a tad expensive :(

Promise to finish soon! Finally general training (esp. Free shaping) will make him nice and tired. It's relatively easy to teach dogs to do useful and fun things (closing doors, putting washing in a washing basket from the floor, fetching things for you, etc). Look up 101 things to do with a box for a good start. plus it's fun for the kids even if they can't help training, to be able to ask him to do this and that for a treat (once you've taught him).

Not gonna comment on food stuff but poor quality food will (or may, some dogs get away with it for sure) affect their behaviour. Lots of people report miraculous improvements when their dog is moved onto a good quality food.

[Dirtybadger]

www.whichdogfood.co.uk/

[Dirtybadger]

Oh damn it I forgot something again. www.dogdaysnw.com/doc/OverallRelaxationProtocol.pdf

[Marne]

Thank you Dirty, loads of good ideas there, he is a year old ( this week ), wed o quite a lot of training with him as he really enjoys it ( and will do anything for a treat ), when we are out he is a angel ( always returns to me, will fetch, sit and stay ) but he finds it harder at home as he is always so excited, he's very clingy and cries when I leave him ( he's not allowed in the kitchen so cries when I'm cooking dinner ), I try and give him a bone or a chew when I leave him and he goes in his crate if I'm gone for more than 10 minutes or he chews things up).

Ours other dog is a SBT and she is so lazy, will have a short walk and then sleep for the rest of the day, they will play together which burns of a little bit of energy but now the gardens muddy they can't play put as much ( or I'm constantly mopping the floor and removing mud from furniture ).

He's happily munching on his bone now so is actually staying still .