Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Flip

Original poster

Sulky Labrador!

23 replies

BlueberryWafer · 27/02/2015 18:05

Anyone else with a really sulky Labrador? She's 4 and does not want to sit in the front room with us - she stands at the baby gate to the kitchen until I let her through. We have tried putting nice beds in the living room with us, bringing all her chew toys through, giving her lots of cuddles etc. She still just wants to go through to the kitchen. She doesn't go to sleep, she just sits there! If we do leave her in the living room and don't let her through to the kitchen she just paces around and won't settle until we let her through to the kitchen. Even when her bed is brought through to the living room she would rather sit on the hard floor in the kitchen than sit with us in the living room, it's quite bizarre really!

She's a very loved dog, never left alone for more than 4 hours at a time, the kids have always been taught to leave her be when she's relaxing and not pester her etc. I just don't understand why she's so antisocial! I guess she just wants her own space, it's just a shame as I have fond memories of our family dog curled up at my feet while we watched tv etc. when I was growing up.

Anyone else got an antisocial lab?

OP posts:

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 27/02/2015 18:07

Oh I should add, it's not because she's wants to be let out to the toilet as she is out frequently, and if i do let her out into the garden when she's stood at the baby gate she just sniffs for a bit then comes and sits in the kitchen!

OP posts:

cashewnutty · 27/02/2015 18:09

Our lab is exactly the same. She appears if she wants fed or it is walk time but most of the time she spends in her crate in the kitchen. During the day she will pad about a bit but it is the evening when she is most anti social. She is away to her bed now having been fed and will probably only emerge of she wants out for a wee. That will be her until tomorrow morning. She is a useless snuggling dog! I don't thinks she is sulking, she just likes her cosy bed by the radiator.

RandomMess · 27/02/2015 18:12

Just an introvert dog I guess??? Happy in her own company.

MrsHarryRamsden · 27/02/2015 18:15

Our Ddog is similar, but I think it's because he prefers the coolness of the kitchen.

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 27/02/2015 18:17

Our kitchen is warmer than the living room most of the time as there is no radiator in the living room but there is in the kitchen. I guess she just likes her own company

OP posts:

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 27/02/2015 18:18

Cashewnutty, glad it's not just mine then!

OP posts:

cashewnutty · 27/02/2015 18:32

We have a nice mat in the sitting room by the radiator but she just prefers her bed. She isn't at all introvert - in fact when out on walks she is almost too outgoing and friendly.

I think she is copying our 17 yo DD - emerges when it suits her (mostly for food or when she gets bored) then retreats to her room the rest of the time.

ender · 27/02/2015 18:44

Pleased to find there are other labs like mine . He's 4yrs old and over the past 6 months is spending less and less time snoozing on the sofa with other dog and rest of family. He still enjoys playing and being made a fuss of but if nothing's going on he retires to the unheated and not v comfortable utility room.

muttynutty · 27/02/2015 19:00

She just more comfy for whatever reason in the kitchen, maybe quieter, warmer etc (probably loves the kitchen smells too - like a good true lab!)

CaTsMaMmA · 27/02/2015 19:05

we had one like that...perfectly happy in his own company, would go to bed at ten no matter what, refuse to go out after, he was such a good boy!

RandomMess · 27/02/2015 19:07

I have visions that he's like my husband, perfectly sociable when out & about and then retires to recover in his own space!

Bowlersarm · 27/02/2015 19:12

They all have their foibles! We have two - girl is with us all the time although doesn't want to be touched too much - she tolerates the cuddling from me but is happier not being cuddled but wants to be right by me 24/7. Boy lab loves to be cuddled, kissed, stroked, brushed, for half an hour or so at a time, but then takes himself off and doesnt require any other affection.

Both labs endure my cuddles/kisses/affection - much as my DSes

They are all so different. Work with the one you have OP. I love labs

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 27/02/2015 19:17

Oh don't get me wrong, she's ace! Definitely quirky.. But ace all the same! Just thought it was bizarre that she'd rather spend time alone in the kitchen than being snuggled with us

OP posts:

Nearasdammit · 28/02/2015 00:55

If she prefers the tiles maybe it's too warm for her elsewhere?

Adarajames · 28/02/2015 01:26

My old collie x girl is like that, more so now she's senile and likes things exactly where they've always been and her own space and peace and quiet to snooze

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 28/02/2015 12:52

The kitchen is much warmer than the living room, nearasdammit, as there is no radiator in the living room and the log burner is rarely on. She's in the kitchen in her bed at the min while I'm sat on my arse on mn pottering about doing some jobs. If I call her in for a stroke she will come in til I stop stroking her then go back to her bed! Anti social mare

OP posts:

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 28/02/2015 12:56

Here she is! (Photo attached for those of you on the app who can't see photos)

OP posts:

ender · 28/02/2015 16:55

She's beautiful OP .
Just come in from cold windy walk with the 2 dogs. Sat down on sofa with them hoping for cuddles and lab pointedly got up and stood by the door. He'll stand there looking pathetic till someone lets him into the utility room, he'll probably be there most of the evening. Antisocial git.

RandomMess · 28/02/2015 19:31

Meanwhile I came home from being out for the morning. Needed a nap - dog got under the covers and curled up next to me until she needed the loo! She even braved sharing my bed with the cats to be next to me...

She sleeps in her crate but we have a chalet bungalow and my room is on the ground floor.

ElsieMc · 28/02/2015 21:34

She looks exactly like my lab. She lives in the utility room. The floor is cool but that is where the boiler is. She likes her own space, but is most sociable in the evening when her main aim in life is to get on the sofa with me or rather hog the sofa with her big butt.

Sometimes though she just goes and walks off and back to her room. I don't think of it as sulking, just wanting her own space.

Have you got a utility room you could place her bed for her own space. The only reason I am not suggesting the kitchen is that labs are so food driven that that is perhaps why she is hanging around there, frightened of missing something.

We had issues with ours in the kitchen following her stealing an extra large farmhouse loaf and devouring it whilst I was out, despite the best efforts of our builders to separate her from it. It was so funny imagining their struggle.

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 01/03/2015 12:00

I only have the 2 rooms downstairs in my house - the kitchen and the living room there is no door on, just a baby gate so she's not locked in there. I just guess I fe bad she spends so much time alone, but I suppose she must like it or it would be the opposite way round and she'd be stood at the gate to get into the living room.

OP posts:

Original poster

BlueberryWafer · 01/03/2015 12:05

Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming - she is chewing a bone in the living room I repeat in the living room! She must have read the mumsnet thread!

OP posts:

lulalullabye · 03/03/2015 22:58

Our lab is the same, 3yr old girl, will not socialise a minute after 6pm. Or during the day either. dinner time she will grace us with her presence but that is it. We love her and when out she is a totally different dog!

Flip