please can anyone tell me at what age a puppy/dog will stop destroying the house and garden. He is not left on his own for longer than an hour or so a day when he is left he is fine he seems to be worse when we are home. He has plenty of toys including a kong that i fill. We also have a king charles spaniel who is 8yrs old, loui the retreiver is the boss and sometimes we have to seperate them because loui is a bit rough with the small dog i dont like to seperate them but i am worried the small dog will get hurt . by the way loui is 7months old. I have allways had retreivers before i just cannot remember about the early years' also loui goes to training every week and is doing really well. Any thoughts or advice would be welcome, or to hear from any golden retreiver lovers, lynne

He sounds like a very clever but bored puppy. Many folk make the mistake of getting a clever puppy and not giving him the mental stimulation he needs. I would suggest you contact John Weller who can advise on training and games to keep his mind occupied. It is to do and makes his life interesting and yours more so! I used to train my dogs to run errands around the house when the children were small, as well as work as picking up dogs on shoots. John Weller regularly posts on this board and he has labradors, you will know if you have the right person as he talks about "The Flower" alias Annabelle.

Hi again! John has posted a notice on the idle chat section of the board so I will email and get him to advise further.

Hi Lynne, As Polly says mental stimulation is as important as physical exercise, particularly in the case of a puppy. Dealing with your points in order: -

Puppies chew for a number of reasons, the usual is teething. Just like a baby having tender gums when teething, so to a puppy and chewing is his way of trying to alleviate the pain! Another reason is boredom. You know the old saying, "The devil makes work for idle hands!"

As far as your King Charles is concerned, I think it highly unlikely that he sees the puppy as the boss. Far more likely he's looking at the puppy in a similar way an indulgent parent would!

Bringing up a puppy is never easy but time spent now will more than repay you later. All waking time should be supervised! Allow a puppy to chew once and the next time he won't be able to understand why he can't do it again! Dogs are very logical, humans are not!
Don't over exercise a puppy. Even at 7 months old his bones have still not hardened but 20mins or so is about right, gradually extending this as time goes by.
Stuffed Kong’s are good mental exercise but best during the time you are away. Training is best possible mental stimulation, any training! It's unimportant what you train; Basic obedience exercises such as sit stay, down stay and recalls. Gundog work such as retrieving. Nose work, like finding things. Play with him with a toy, when you have his interest toss it about a yard away and encourage him to fetch it and you have the retrieve! Next step is to toss it just around a corner so it is just out of your puppy's sight and encourage him to fetch again. As he gets the idea of that start to make it a LITTLE harder to find always keeping it within his ability to find. Remember, a dog finds mental work just as tiring as physical work!
When playing with your King Charles, never allow things to go too far. You want him to look upon the puppy as a friend not a menace. What he tolerates now he may well rebel against as the puppy gets older. The puppy gets over exited and nips the older dog, the older dog retaliates and before you know you have a full-scale war on your hands. Remember, humans make the rules.
I see from your post that you go to training. Practise the exercises at home. 5 minutes here on one exercise then a bit later another 5 minutes there on another. Lots of short training periods rather than one long session is far better.
Of the retrievers, Flatcoats tend to be the most sensitive, Goldens the next and Labradors the least. This doesn’t mean you can knock the poor Lab around but it does mean they are more forgiving of the mistakes we all make than the other two. The other point I’d like to make is that the more intelligent the dog is, very often the harder work it can be!
Hope this has given you food for thought!

Regards John

Hi, Does he have bones and toys that he IS allowed to chew? I agree with others that he sounds bored and hopefully John's advice will help there. Mine have a Rask once a week for a treat. Nylabones are good too. If you can stand it, a huge raw beef leg bone, sawn not chopped will keep him amused for hours/days/weeks. My lab used to love the "raggy bones", the ones made of soft cotton, you can chuck em in the machine when they get disgusting! If he starts chewing anything while you are about, give him something he is allowed to chew and then make a fuss of him. Good luck, it wont last for ever! My lab stopped chewing at 10 months, like magic, almost overnight. We despaired of her, one night she chewed one shoe from every pair of shoes I possesed, when I left the hallway door open, had to go to work in my wellies!She also ate or squirted the contents (considerable!)of my make up basket, She could not stand LCD watches and would grab them off the table, chest of drawers if she could, and destroy them. Luckily she never actually ate them. I always wondered about that one - why watches in particular. Oh the joys of dog keeping! :-)