Should I get my dog a friend?

DefaultM

My labrador is nearly 2 and is being a bit naughty at the minute as we think he is bored. 
We have a baby coming in December and so we're not sure if he will get jealous because he won't get all the attention any more and will become worse, so my fiance has suggested getting a second dog to keep him company.

In my mind this will either go one of 2 ways. The second dog will keep him company and all will be fine, or they'll be naughty together and we'll have 2 dogs and a baby to contend with.

I'm definitely not going to get a puppy, so we would get a rescue dog. It's possible to foster them first to see how it works out, but I'm sure that either way my fiance would want to keep it.
Does anyone have any experience in this? 

octatonic

Depends.
Dogs often enjoy company but it depends on the dynamic.
The amount of carnage that two dogs together can create is exponentially more than one dog on its own.

How much exercise does your lab currently get?
My wife's best friend has a lab and he is walked hard- basically runs the whole time- for 4 hours a day and he still has loads more energy.
How much time does your dog spend on his own?

DefaultM

He gets half an hour a day, but we've got a big garden now and he bolts around that whenever he wants as well. 
My fiance only works 2 days a week, so he's alone twice a week for about 7 hours at a time. All the rest of the time he's with us.

octatonic

DefaultM said:

He gets half an hour a day, but we've got a big garden now and he bolts around that whenever he wants as well. 
My fiance only works 2 days a week, so he's alone twice a week for about 7 hours at a time. All the rest of the time he's with us.

That is likely to be the problem, I'm afraid.
You have a high energy dog that is getting walked less than my 10 year old English Bulldog.
That is a recipe for bad behaviour.

Is he a working or show line?

What type of bad behaviour is he exhibiting?
He needs at least an hour a day, provided it is more than just a gentle walk.
Ideally more than that.
His bad behaviour is almost certainly down to a lack of exercise.

The other side of it is don't just exercise him to tire him out- try to get his mind involved, get him to do thing, play fetch, hide treats in toys.

Dogs don't really 'self exercise'- they are born followers, they need to roam, ideally with their pack leader.

Adding a baby to the household will not be a problem if he is exercised and stimulated, and providing he is given clear boundaries.

DefaultM

Fucking hell. At night we try keep him in the living room with us, but he keeps wanting to leave so I assumed he needed the toilet.
I took him but he refused to go, so out of interest I let him leave and then 20 seconds later I quietly followed him to see what he was doing.
 
I gave him some dried margarita cheese as a treat earlier and he's obviously remembered where I got it from, because I found him on the kitchen counter trying to get in to the cupboard where we keep it.

octatonic

DefaultM said:

Fucking hell. At night we try keep him in the living room with us, but he keeps wanting to leave so I assumed he needed the toilet.
I took him but he refused to go, so out of interest I let him leave and then 20 seconds later I quietly followed him to see what he was doing.
 
I gave him some dried margarita cheese as a treat earlier and he's obviously remembered where I got it from, because I found him on the kitchen counter trying to get in to the cupboard where we keep it.

Haha.
He sound like quite a character.
Labs are such amazing dogs.

Do you get him to do something to earn the treat?
It is a good technique.
Scarlett never gets anything without sitting and then either giving her paw 'shake', lying down 'down', or barking on command 'speak'.
There is clear research that shows dogs like to earn their treats.

DefaultM

octatonic said:

DefaultM said:

He gets half an hour a day, but we've got a big garden now and he bolts around that whenever he wants as well. 
My fiance only works 2 days a week, so he's alone twice a week for about 7 hours at a time. All the rest of the time he's with us.

That is likely to be the problem, I'm afraid.
You have a high energy dog that is getting walked less than my 10 year old English Bulldog.
That is a recipe for bad behaviour.

Is he a working or show line?

What type of bad behaviour is he exhibiting?
He needs at least an hour a day, provided it is more than just a gentle walk.
Ideally more than that.
His bad behaviour is almost certainly down to a lack of exercise.

The other side of it is don't just exercise him to tire him out- try to get his mind involved, get him to do thing, play fetch, hide treats in toys.

Dogs don't really 'self exercise'- they are born followers, they need to roam, ideally with their pack leader.

Adding a baby to the household will not be a problem if he is exercised and stimulated, and providing he is given clear boundaries.

Thanks. We don't know what he is to be honest. We bought him from a breeder who said he was pedigree, but she didn't supply the papers and when you compare him to other labradors he's a lot smaller.

I don't take him for walks on a lead because he's honestly a nightmare. We take him to the park and he's straight off it and running about.
His recall is brilliant, but if you have him on a lead he literally screams and chokes himself the entire time. It's distressing.
I used to take him for a walk on the lead every day and he was great, but one day he just started this screaming and he's done it ever since so we take him to the park now.

octatonic

DefaultM said:

Thanks. We don't know what he is to be honest. We bought him from a breeder who said he was pedigree, but she didn't supply the papers and when you compare him to other labradors he's a lot smaller.

I don't take him for walks on a lead because he's honestly a nightmare. We take him to the park and he's straight off it and running about.
His recall is brilliant, but if you have him on a lead he literally screams and chokes himself the entire time. It's distressing.
I used to take him for a walk on the lead every day and he was great, but one day he just started this screaming and he's done it ever since so we take him to the park now.

Have you tried a harness?
That sounds like a fairly serious issue and one I cannot fix unless I'm with you, which isn't possible.
I suggest you speak to a dog behaviourist in your area.

However, there is something that can help which is the attention exercise.
Have a look at this: 
There is a technique to snap the lead that doesn't hurt the dog but doest require the snap lead they use in the video.
But it is difficult to describe, essentially you let the lead slacken and snap it across the direction travel just hard enough that it gets their attention.
If this is unclear then don't attempt it.

Dogs that choke themselves with leads are best dealt with by interrupting the direction of travel, so if they are pulling forwards then you snap the lead left or right of that direction of travel- this interrupts the pulling and brings their attention back to you.

Forgive me for being blunt but you simply cannot spend the next 12 years of your life enabling his behaviour- it isn't fair on him and it will be a pain in the ass for you, especially once you have a kid.

Dogs need to be trained to walk on a lead- Scarlett did the typical Bulldog thing of putting her bum on the floor and refusing to walk.
It took me about 6 months to get her to walk on command with no complaint.
Consistency and treats earned.

DefaultM

We had a halti that went over his nose which worked perfectly because every time he pulled it would bring him back to us. However, every time it brought him back to us he was able to get a little bit of it in his mouth and after 2 walks he had chewed straight through it.
He did that to 2 of them and I can't find one with a chew proof material so we've had to go back to a normal lead.

octatonic

Try something like this:

Handsome_Chris

DefaultM said:

My labrador is nearly 2 and is being a bit naughty at the minute as we think he is bored. 
We have a baby coming in December and so we're not sure if he will get jealous because he won't get all the attention any more and will become worse, so my fiance has suggested getting a second dog to keep him company.

In my mind this will either go one of 2 ways. The second dog will keep him company and all will be fine, or they'll be naughty together and we'll have 2 dogs and a baby to contend with.

I'm definitely not going to get a puppy, so we would get a rescue dog. It's possible to foster them first to see how it works out, but I'm sure that either way my fiance would want to keep it.
Does anyone have any experience in this? 

@DefaultM , the problem is would they be your dogs or the missus dogs?  I know women who love their dogs and, if it comes to it, you may have trouble separating her labs. 

DefaultM

I'd say she has a love hate relationship with the current dog. Loves him most of the time, but not so much when he's taking her dresses from the washing basket and dragging them all through the garden haha. 

I'm not sure if we'd get another labrador. Probably something a bit smaller and not as greedy. Though to be honest I wasn't keen on the idea and I've been put off even more now. 
I might sell a few things so I can afford for a behaviourist to come round, and then maybe get another if we see improvement.

Iamnobody

I would put the work in on the current beast before even thinking about a second one if I was you.

Once you have him trained and are giving him sufficient exercise I'm sure you will be a very happy family of four...and can go for family walks on the lead etc.

Most Lab owners I know only have one dog and they get on fine.

@octantonic has given you some great advice so far. 

Definitely get some outside help involved (shouldn't cost much - far less than a second dog).

Labs can quickly become big fat fuckers if you don't exercise them and give them too many treats. 

lustycourtier

Our rescue cocker was a nightmare to walk. aggressive, pulling choking himself. Then we had ONE 40 min session with a trainer who's dogs (a Rottweiler, and 2 Alsatians) basically taught him to be of the lead in minutes. It wasn't easy to watch as we were walking and ignoring the dogs they would drag him to the floor if he tried to run of or walk in front of the pack, but he learnt it instantly and is now perfect off the lead and the friendliest most social dog I've ever had. He has since had a few sessions to work on recall etc but 4 sessions at £130 in total has turned a dog we struggled with for 2 years and we're trying to rehome into a great friend. 

toescantalk

Just to agree with @octatonic that labs are working dogs and need mental stimulation or they'll go to the dark side! Training does this (lead / sit / stay), ball games, frisbee etc.

It's all fun and they do chill out when they get older!

DefaultM

I thought it would cost a lot more than £130 for 4 sessions. I'll have a look in to it.
We tried to sign him up to group classes when we first got him, but they wouldn't let us because we said he barked near people he didn't know. Said that we'd have to get home sessions first which was something like £200 an hour and we couldn't afford it.
Seems we were being conned!

lustycourtier

first 45 min session (no dog can take anymore than that as its mental training….he sleeps for a while after it) was 40 quid I think then each session was 25 or something. We did try a trainer when we first got him, but he tried to do too much too quickly so nothing goes in. One Dog psychologist quoted us 200 quid to come to house so it can get expensive, but the key is exercise, keeping his mind interested and enjoying himself. The rest comes afterwards.

lloyd

Dogs
love company, yeah get another-I've just moved in with someone who has a dog-they love each other it takes some pressure off you as they play with each other.

EricTheWeary

When my youngest son was little we decided to get a second dog. I'd have to say we weren't experienced enough as dog owners and the result was pandemonium. We had to rehome the second dog in the end which was heartbreaking. If you are having problems with the first then adding a second into the mix isn't really going to help. 

There is a couple on our estate who have had a few dogs all well behaved but their current lab won't walk properly on a lead ( and it gets a lot of exercise) so they went for a big padded harness in the end. 

Good luck. 

boogieman

toescantalk said:

It's all fun and they do chill out when they get older!

I wish. Our lab is 7 (today! Happy birthday Mac) and still acts like a fricking lunatic when he feels like it.

He does get a lot of exercise though and I think Octatonic has it right, labs do need plenty of it. Ours has at least a two hour daily walk in the park, most of it off the lead. A couple of times a week my wife meets up with other walkers and will be out with him for 3-4 hours. A couple of the walkers have dogs, so he gets socialising time too.

Labs were bred as hunting/retrieving dogs and definitely need mental stimulation. We hide treats round the house for him to find, play ball and frisbee with him in the garden etc etc. 

Drew_TNBD

Children are more important than dogs. Give your dog to the local kebab shop.