Hi everyone! Our 8 month lab has officially hit his teenage phase and I’m getting extreeeeme dog mum guilt over everything.
Unfortunately, our pup is showing signs of elbow dysplasia and the vet has told us off for walking him too much, so he’s now limited to a maximum of 20 minutes physical exercise a day with no running until he’s at least a year and a half 😔. I usually do a 20 minute walk mid day with lots of sniffing games and training.
But he’s seeming very anxious and overstimulated at home, he displays a lot of behaviours which my family say indicate he’s bored such as walking around, bringing things in from the garden, looking out the window, not really settling out the crate etc. I try to do a lot of enrichment through the day with stuffed kongs, cardboard boxes with treats hidden, puzzles, sniff mats and training. But he just seems to have all the energy in the world and finishes those activities quick! I’m feeling awful about it. It really hurts to hear people say to me he’s bored, because I do feel like I’m really trying my best and following the vets advice.
He also gets naps every 1hr 30 mins – 2hours and sleeps well in his crate at nap times, but when he’s up he’s constantly looking for something to do, and it makes me feel so bad. I don’t know if this is a developmental stage? As he’s also become a lot more anxious about people out the window and noises etc. or if I’m not doing enough, so I’d love some advice just on what a good amount of enrichment would look like or good activities we can do. I’m just sick of feeling not good enough for my dog!
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