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I left something out important: Toys.

Your pup is gonna want to chew. She is teething & its itches & hurts. Chewing helps this. Gets some chew toys & get her interested in them by playing with them together. Tug of war or keep away or throw the ball, or whatever seems to interest her. Being a retriever, she should like retrieving the ball or frisbee. You can burn a lot of energy off her by teaching her to retrieve a frisbee. Buy a dog frisbee that she cannot chew up. A real frisbee will not last 5 minutes, & swallowing plastic is not good - big vet bill or dead dog.

Just beware the chew. Either give her lots of things to chew or she will find something to chew - your furniture, Ipad/Iphone, power cords (very common & obviously dangerous), doors, windows, the refrigerator.

Oh, & stop using the crate as a jail. If you are trying to stop her from messing in the house, then maybe she needs to go outside more frequently. Obviously, you want her to pee/poop EVERY time outside, so YOU are gonna have to make that happen. Until she builds some control, you should take her outside if you even imagine she acts like she may need to go.

PAIC, I think you've got some great advice about house breaking. At least you have warm/summer weather. We knew when we got *Winchester* [see home page] in early winter, we'd be in for a challenge. It was, but be consistent. Fortunately I'm retired and home a lot, so the *during the day* trips outside helped him progress

I'm glad Mr.Da mentioned your next hurdle...and that is the *chew factor*. He'll need his own toys, and in spite of that expect furniture and shoes to be ruined.

We started out with a medium sized crate and when Winchester grew into the super-large crate, I kept the medium crate to keep our shoes in it with the door locked! It helped a bunch.

Gone are the days of finding a pair of shoes to wear out of the house...used to try and find a pair that I could wear that were the *least* chewed. LOL

But he destroyed the coffee table. [below] At some point he swallowed a stone he found in the yard. I combed every BM for a week and never found the stone...and about at 10 days he puked it up! Phew!

He still loves his marrow bones....and enjoys peanut butter in the ones he has hollowed out. He takes them in his kennel/crate to enjoy....the crate is his *protective place*.

He's still learning the trade of duck retrieval...is an excellent upland game retriever. Good luck with your Lab!