# Dog can't play alone...EVER!



## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Jlauer*

Goldens love their people, and my Goldens always follow me, too.
I find it very endearing. The positive side of her wanting you to play with her and her toys, is that you make make sure she's not swallowing anything she shouldn't!


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Golden Retrievers are sporting dogs, they were bred to retrieve, run and swim for hours at a time with small breaks in between. When we make them house dogs who lay alone inside for 8 hours at night in a crate and then 8 hours during the day while we're at work it is not what they are meant for. It's up to us to provide them with the exercise and mental work they need to be happy and healthy. Your puppy is not spoiled, she is 100% normal. And you're a normal owner, it IS exhausting to have a dog who just wants to play all the time. If you need her to give you a break and chew a kong, crate her or use an ex pen (an excellent investment) to force her to be still with it.

Tilly is a puppy and needs a lot more exercise than she did when she was a cute little fluff ball. Think of her like a 12 year old boy (think soccer games and touch football) - she needs hard physical exercise on a daily basis to take the edge off her overflowing energy. If not, she will look for ways on her own to keep moving and if she has no other playmates, you're it.

She needs an outlet, 20 or 30 minutes of aerobic activity that gets her heart rate up. Look into a place you can take her to play fetch and REALLY run. Soccer fields, school playfields, church yards etc. Purchase a 30 foot nylon line from hardware store and attach a leash clip to it. Use that to keep some control and work on her recalls so that ultimately she could be off leash for hikes etc. 

I know sometimes you can't do that - so come up with games you can play in the house with her. Teach her to hold a down/stay while you go to another room in the house and hide a favorite toy. Start out easy and build up to more difficult hiding places so she has to use her nose. Go back and release her to find her toy and watch her go racing around to get it. You can also hide people or food rewards. Look up games to play on youtube and teach her new tricks. She needs mental work as much as physical.

Join an obedience club or find another place to learn agility or better yet, field training since she is one that loves to retrieve. That will open up access to places she can run and swim and get proper exercise. You will also meet interesting people who can help you learn things to do with your dog - dock diving, barn hunt, nose work, all great things that don't take the huge hours of commitment in training time but will get your dog out and about. 

Look at the next two years of her life as a time when she is a full time project. Spend as much time as you can working on obedience and getting her learning a sport. You will reap the benefits for the rest of her life. She will be that Golden everyone looks at and wishes they owned, a dog who is bonded to you and is obedient and fun to be around. It is all built on what you invest in her now as a puppy.


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## LoveMyPuppies (Jan 26, 2016)

Thank you! This is excellent advice for any of us with golden puppies!


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## Jlauer (Jan 7, 2016)

Thank you for the post!! I needed that! 

We definitely are making sure to take her somewhere to run (and really run!) for 30-45 min per day. We also have her in obedience class once a week which is great and she loves it! I think it's just all the at home time in between training and play that I'm looking for just a little break to get my things done around the house. She is crate trained to sleep in there at night and when we leave the house. I guess I just never think to use it when we are home because I feel so guilty! But the ex-pen is a GREAT idea. Thank you so much for your ideas, and thank you for making me remember she's just doing what she's supposed to do!! If anything, she has made me A LOT more active than I ever was!  

My biggest problem, and maybe you guys have experienced this one time or another, is that our other friends with other working breed pups don't seem to experience the neediness and attention seeking behavior we see with her. So then I'm constantly wondering what I am doing wrong. Friends of ours just got a golden who loves getting busy for a while on a bully stick, toy, etc. It makes me start questioning what I did to make Tilly have such a short attention span! Guess it's like kids though.....every one is different!!  


I'll look back in two years and laugh at this post. She really is a great girl, so smart, and FULL of personality. I can't complain too much! Thanks again!


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## Jlauer (Jan 7, 2016)

Here's a pic of Miss Tilly. How can you get mad at that face?


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## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

She's beautiful! She'll get there, she's still a baby! Nolefan had excellent advice! We live in an apartment (no yard) and when we got Noah, we knew that we'd need to find lots of things to mentally and physically stimulate him. I do feel like a soccer mom in a way - LOL

Today, we have a nosework class an hour away. This facility also has an acre of fenced in land for the dogs to run and play (and you pay a membership fee of $15 a month to use it any time you want). So we time it so we get there an hour before class so he can acclimate and excercise. After nose work class, they also have a dock diving pool that you can use to either just swim your dogs, or work on dock diving, so we're going to sign up for that ($40 a month for unlimited access to the pool, but sometimes you need to schedule around others). 

He also takes dock diving classes two days a week at another facility (starting back up in April or May), Rally class every Monday night, nose work class is Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons, and when he wakes me up on Sunday, we load up and drive the hour to the first facility to let him run and play. 

My social calendar once it gets warm, pretty much revolves around HIS social calendar and events. 

We also take Fenzi Dog Sports Academy classes online for training that works his mental stimulation during the week. 

His daddy takes him daily to a local high school before work and after work when the school is closed to let him run, every day. It's literally across the street from us, and I also use their parking lot in the evenings for some training sessions. 

I have often told people that my greatest joy is seeing my boy running and playing wide open with a huge grin on his face. So while I often feel we're always on the go, it's also my happy place, being with my boy and building our bond. 

I'm very sure that as she matures it will get better if you work to make sure she's getting both mental and physical stimulation!


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Jlauer said:


> ..... thank you for making me remember she's just doing what she's supposed to do!! If anything, she has made me A LOT more active than I ever was!
> 
> ...Friends of ours just got a golden who loves getting busy for a while on a bully stick, toy, etc. It makes me start questioning what I did to make Tilly have such a short attention span! Guess it's like kids though.....every one is different!!


Thank you so much for taking my post the way I intended it.... it is hard work keeping up with them unless you're looking at them like a full time hobby - a dog person. I learned that when my first Golden came home (had a 2 1/2 year old daughter) and we'd train obedience some (just easy stuff) and go for walks and play fetch in our small backyard. It simply wasn't enough. He was digging holes in the backyard and doing wacky things like rolling a ball under my dresser ON PURPOSE so that he could try to dig it out and then I'd 'save' it and he'd do it again.... my mom looked at me and said "this dog needs a job". OK, you're right. So i worked on more obedience and took up field training just for fun. 

He was the smartest dog and I look back at all I could have done with him if I'd made/had more time. He could have been a performance dog (Topbrass breeding on his mother's side) and I will always regret I didn't give him more of an outlet. My current Golden has benefited A LOT from what I learned with him, I just want to share the stuff I learned the hard way with younger people here who have their first Golden.

Honestly, if you're making sure he has some kind of exercise every day I just don't think you should feel guilty giving him the ex pen and a bone for 30 minutes while you do laundry or watch one t.v. show. 

Just out of curiosity..... what is Tilly's pedigree - who did you get her from? She has a gorgeous face and reminds me of my parents' Golden. Who is also gorgeous and comes from a breeder of show lines and is also very ADD, super smart but super short attention span and is a lot of work. More so than my girl who loves to play and go but is also happy to snuggle on the couch.


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Miss Tilly*

Miss Tilly is absolutely gorgeous! She is still a puppy!
When you put her in her crate, make sure you take her collar off.
I agree that she needs to run, too. I don't know what we would do without our fenced yard!


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## Jlauer (Jan 7, 2016)

Nolefan, your first golden you mentioned could not sound more IDENTICAL to Tilly! Her absolute favorite hobby is kicking her balls and toys under our couches (they have legs so they are a little raised) and then she digs and scratches at the couch to try and save them. Now That...I think she would do for hours. The damage to my couches put that game to an end though! I started hiding toys under blankets and a pile of pillows just for her to have the same experience of finding her toys. We even had to go out and get bigger toys and balls that can't roll under anything for inside the house, and only have tennis balls and other small toys out if we are watching her play with them or they are outside in the yard! 

Thanks again for the tips! I feel like all of you, nothing makes me happier than seeing that big grin on her face when she is doing something that she loves. Im going to start looking into some of the field work you guys mentioned, and maybe the dock diving. It all sounds like a blast! 

We got Tilly just outside of Pittsburgh. We knew it was an experienced breeder, but didn't realize until we picked her up and saw her pedigree that she was from a long champion blood line. Lots of show dogs in there! Thanks for the kind words.


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## kmb (Apr 24, 2009)

I'm so glad someone else takes their dog to training an hour away!! LOL My family thinks I'm crazy since I'm thinking of taking my Mia to a nose work class that is about 1 1/4 hours away from us. Yes, that is the closest one.


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## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

kmb said:


> I'm so glad someone else takes their dog to training an hour away!! LOL My family thinks I'm crazy since I'm thinking of taking my Mia to a nose work class that is about 1 1/4 hours away from us. Yes, that is the closest one.


Hey kmb - if you don't want to make that drive - we're signing up for this online class in April as well. Lots of dogs who take this course go on to title their dogs. 

Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - NW101: Introduction to Nosework

and another link you may want to check out

Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - Scent Sports


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## Elsa Cholla's Mom (Feb 8, 2016)

I have the same issue. I have been working on keeping Elsa entertained full time so far in her life, but now she needs a lot less sleep, I have finally started doing things in a much more measured way. I have some health issues so I can't just let her exhaust me. My husband will also take over if I can't handle it any more and need time out. I will play with her, get her fetching the length of the house about 4-5 times, then a bit of training or trying to catch the ball in mid air to calm her. Then I tell her to 'Go play'. If she continues to pester, I throw something interesting like a juice bottle into the kitchen, or her fav stuffy and say, 'Go play'. She also loves the way yogurt tubs roll too. She is catching on and learning to keep herself busy for awhile. If she is really wired, then I give her a frozen peanut butter bone to keep her busy until she is calm. It's been hard raising a pup through winter, because evening walks weren't possible, but we have done 2 short evening walks the last two days. I think that will help too.

I also know we are getting a new puppy early June, my husband's dog. So I am looking forward to having that to keep her entertained and active... and laugh at her the first time SHE is had enough of being the focus of a persistent puppy's harassment, Lol.


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## djg2121 (Nov 22, 2015)

Jlauer said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I don't want this post to come off insensitive because I am in LOVE with my baby girl, Tilly, but I think we have created a major problem!
> 
> ...



You need a second dog! It's still a bit early, but I've found it easier with two, as they keep each other company, play together, and act like dogs. I also feel less guilty when I leave them home alone.


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