8 month old labradoodle - suggestions to keep her stimulated

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Our 8 month old labradoodle has started whining and barking when she can’t get to what she wants, this could be anything from wanting to get to the cats when she’s in her crate or if they’re the other side of the door from her, to if one of us gets up and leaves the room to make a cup of tea or something when we’re watching TV together in the evening and shuts the door to keep her in the living room.

Husband tends to keep the door shut as by that time the cats have had enough of her but she just wants to chase and play with them.

She’s fine the majority of the time but it’s when she thinks she’s missing out on something. Any suggestions? As I’m writing this I’m wondering if she needs more stimulation, more frozen kongs preparing in the morning etc. Any other suggestions for indestructible toys she might like (nothing with stuffing as she disembowels it straight away and leaves the stuffing everywhere.

What's her lab half? Show or working? If working, she might be a bit more drivey than you had bargained for.

Loads of useful advice above. You could also try and tap into her lab half and teach her to retrieve (just fun things indoors at first). If you can do that, some structured retrieve training on walks should give her the outlet she needs and make her easier in the house.

And yes, praise praise praise when she's being good. The hours I spent when my younger dog was under a year old saying 'Oh, what a good girl!' as she lay on her bed!

Dont respond to wining or its associated with the more I whine the more they take notice of me. If you've had her a while she should be fine around the cats now yes they may swipe her once or twice to teach her how far she can go but that's part of puppy learning boundaries. Not a hundred percent why you put her in a crate for such a short time as your fur baby should be learning earing time is your time and not to chew etc. They may start to view crate as a punishment area. Dont spoil with to many nice foods or doggies start to expect it. You have a very intelligent lil girl and if you channel it right you will end up with a very nice family pet. Try puppy classes.

She’s a rescue so not 100% about her lab part but I’d guess show based on observation.

I love the image of you praising her for lying on her bed, did lots of that yesterday and always chat to and praise her on walks, so most of the time she trots along watching me now 🥰

The crate time being limited is to mix it up a bit for her but please do tell me if I’m doing it wrong. She is very settled in there (we’ve always put toys etc in and feed her in there), but doesn’t choose to go in usually. We get a treat and ask her to go in and she goes straight in. Sometimes we have to move the cat first as he likes it in there too.

The cats are definitely the boss for the most part, they will swipe her and one will actually hide and jump out on her but sometimes she will try and play with them too energetically and it’s not fair on them.

We did puppy classes which were helpful to an extent but the aim seemed to be that the dogs became very disengaged with their natural tendencies, so the idea being that our high energy social girl was to learn to ignore everyone / thing. Maybe that is what we need for the cats but our old dog was so chilled out and low energy that he just plodded about seemingly oblivious to the world most of the time and I really wanted a dog which was more energetic and sociable (and boy have we got that!), seems such a shame to try and get rid of it.

I probably wouldn’t bother too much trying to police her with the cats. A few well directed swipes from them and she should start to learn how far she can push it. Just make sure they can always escape upwards or a get a baby gate with bars wide enough for them to get through but not the puppy.

Snuffle mats and puzzle feeders are a good distraction for the witching hour; just use some of the kibble from her daily allowance. A treat dispensing ball is fun too.

Definitely find something that she enjoys chewing, for the evening. You might need to try a few different things from the pet shop, Dogs love to chew, our dog spends much of her evening chewing. She especially likes the pork rolls we get. Chewing is a natural thing for them to do and it calms them.

We did puppy classes which were helpful to an extent but the aim seemed to be that the dogs became very disengaged with their natural tendencies, so the idea being that our high energy social girl was to learn to ignore everyone / thing.

Teaching them to ignore things isn't to disengage them with their natural tendencies, it's to make them safe and well-mannered.

If they're not really interested in strangers or other dogs, they won't jump up at people, run off on walks to try and play with other dogs and will focus more on you and what you're asking of them.

That doesn't mean your dog can't be high energy and playful and sociable, just that they need to learn that they can't run up to everything that takes their fancy

That’s kind of what she was saying, but she also went onto say that she has no idea why anyone would want to talk to a dog which wasn’t theirs and if people ask to stroke her dog she says no. For no other reason than ‘it’s not your dog’. That’s so far from my feelings about dogs that it felt really uncomfortable. I’m probably wrong though - I often am!

Unless they ask permission I don't let strangers stroke my dog either - and even if they do ask permission I often say no - for a couple of reasons.

He doesn't actually enjoy being fussed all that much - he likes it from people he knows but it's different if it's a random stranger looming over him and he often ducks away and if freaks him out a bit, especially if they don't let him sniff them first.

I don't want him to think that every human he sees will give him fuss or attention just for being there. Not everyone is interested in fussing dogs so his general indifference to strangers is no bad thing in my book.

That said, if he knows you or you're in his home he loves a fuss and a cuddle but I think that's very different as a) anyone coming in knows we have a dog and that it's his home, and b) he can easily take himself off somewhere quiet if he's had enough.

The trainer from our first puppy classes was a bit like that - her opinion was dogs don't need to play with other dogs ever. I'm sure that some dogs are content that way, especially in multi dog households but we have only one labrador. We found another trainer, who was more there's a time and a place for play. We now have a lovely well mannered dog who will look to us for permission to play, and can be recalled away from playmates if needed.

Thank you all so much for your contributions to this thread. We’ve had the best couple of days with her with just following a few of the suggestions.

Just took her on a walk with a training line, as she came back every time we called her we let her off to play catch. She’s had a great run and literally come back every single time we called her.

Our Springer died old age our sprocker is still lonely 12 months on. Like us they're social animals