Winston is 1 year and 4 months old. He is a black Labrador from a working sniffer dog family.

We have had him since he was 12 weeks old. He was born 23/4/23.

We love him so much but feel he needs a lot more running around time than we are able to give him. We have tried so many things to try to be able to keep him but we really do think he needs more than we can offer him.

When we got him he was coming to work with me as a puppy to socialise and try to learn to be a therapy dog so he would be around people all day and have lots of freedom. However we found that this was not possible with his tendency to chew and mouth and lack of recall. I have worked a lot on the recall but I cannot draw him out of his lack of coming back at the moment. I hope there is someone with more knowledge than myself who will be able to figure it out.

He enjoys playing with a ball. He is mostly good at bringing it back when in the garden until he gets bored of it. He sometimes drops it but also likes to keep it in his mouth. He responds well to treats. He doesn’t bring it back as much when out as there is lots of distractions.

He does not bark and he is very affectionate and loving in an excited and playful way. I have only heard him bark once in his life at a bird on the fence. He is a lot of fun to play with and has a good character with a loving nature. He does mouth when he gets excited, I usually say gentle and close your mouth and he has come a long way with this. However we have a 6 month old baby who he enjoys licking to show his love which can unfortunately turn into a little nip after a few seconds. Although he has got a lot better with the baby and generally does his own thing while I carry him around, Winston can spontaneously jump up to try to lick him which can end up with his paws accidentally catching him. So I have to be constantly watching and wary as he cannot be trusted around him.

He has got a lot better at not jumping up at new people but he just wants to see their face and lick them. He does jump up on the dining table all of the time, even after us telling him to get down all of his life multiple times a day. He likes to see what is up there that he can get his mouth on. He will take anything that he can reach to chew on it. This makes it hard to eat at the dining table or have anything on there.

He is overly friendly with other dogs when we take him out. He really likes to go to others and see them and play. He is also very strong so pulls on the lead which can make it hard some times. He wears a harness but is still very hard to manage for my strong partner. I have recently started trying to use a nose lead which he does well when it is on and reduces the pulling a lot but it is a real struggle to get it on him.

He can be submissive if another dog wants to chase him when playing or gets the ball before him. When off lead at the dog park he will run up to me and run through my legs often, however if it was a child he would knock them over when trying to lick them. I try my best to take him to the dog park at Hoburne Bashley which is enclosed to be off lead, but I cannot take him with the baby as he is very strong and it is hard to get him out of the boot on my own when I have the baby as well. I do not let him off the lead if it is not in an enclosed area as he does not recall easily. I struggle to get him to come back when he is having fun. However at home he is good 90% of the time and responds well to treats. He goes to his place, in his bedroom, sit, lay, paw within a couple of seconds of asking. He usually stops what he is doing when I call him and comes running inside. When he was a puppy he was able to run around on his 10m training line, however as he has become stronger when he got older he has pulled me over a couple of times when chasing a bird which became very dangerous when I was pregnant. Generally though he was very good on the line most of the time and listened when I said he was near the end of the line. I was able to call him back quickly when I spotted another dog or person coming as he would run towards them to greet them if I didn’t see them. As a puppy about 5 months old he had his ear nipped by another dog that came up behind him. He didn’t see until the last second then turned around and they lunged forward aggressively. He now has a scar near the top of his right ear. I called the vet at the time as the blood was dripping but it was not a gaping wound. They said to flush out and let it heal. It did heal quickly.

Unfortunately he is an avid chewer. He enjoys wood (chairs, tables, skirting boards) and sofas (ripping open fabric sofa cushions, leather sofa cushions). He has now unfortunately chewed up the plastic bottom of his large crate that he sleeps in. He has been in a crate at night since we got him so we know he is safe and not chewing on things. Unfortunately now he cannot be trusted to be left alone as the chews the leather sofa after a few minutes out and has taken the stuffing out of one of the cushions, despite having been for an hour walk and having natural chews from Hordle pet shop and loads of toys out. Before the leather sofa replaced the chewed up fabric sofa a couple of months ago, he was able to relax in the lounge by himself after walk and a play time for about an hour. The back door in the lounge is always open for him for him so he can go in the garden whenever he feels like it. We do believe some of the chewing is due to boredom from not enough activity in the day. He gets an hour fast walking in the morning and evening, however I can only provide garden activity in the day time as I can’t walk him with his strength and the baby which I feel very unhappy about.

He does take up the whole sofa as he is so long and enjoys laying on it. I try to sit next to him and stroke him but he tends to lay across me or behind me and stroking soon turns into mouthing me or pushing with his legs. He stops when I ask usually and I give him a toy to chew on but when he does it again I ask him to get down and find a toy. He also loves ripping up blankets.

He enjoys playing with empty plastic drinks bottles. He often gets the roomies when he has a new one to play with.

Winston had all of his vaccinations as a puppy at vets4pets New Milton. He recently had his boosters in early July.