Dog sitting a big excitable labrador...

[Brittapieandchips]

So, my sister is going on holiday for two weeks and my mum agreed to dogsit. Except she works full time and I'll be at home with the kids (I live with my parents, my kids and my elderly nana, as well as two kittens, a budgie and two rabbits...) so I'm gonna end up as the main dog entertainer.

He is a very large and enthusiastic nine month old labrador.

The house is biggish, so the kittens can stay in my Nanas living room and my bedroom, although all the animals have access to outside.

The dog pulls on his lead a lot and is VERY strong, and nana is unsteady so that makes days out quite hard (plus I don't drive and I don't fancy taking him on the bus)

SO. Ideas, tips etc very welcome!

www.youtube.com/user/kikopup - this lady explains training really well. Dogs really do enjoy the training, it's just games and regular treats and interaction with a human who's paying them attention, and it's improving for him too.

He's doing my head in already. He's constantly picking things up in his mouth to chew, jumping up, standing on our toes, play biting, licking dd2s face, nearly knocking nana over, eating anything he can get hold of (which is a lot), chasing the rabbits and cats etc.

I know it's all normal dog behaviour, and he's lovely, but I am definitely a lazy cat person :-D

Dreading taking him for walks :-/

You'll need to manage his environment a bit more carefully - make sure there's nothing he can reach which he can chew, put all food out of his reach, keep him separated from the rabbits and cats (it's not fair to them to let them be chased)
When you take him for a walk make sure it's somewhere fairly quiet and enclosed - if you're not sure about his recall don't let him off the lead