Couple random questions!
We have a 5 month old large mixed breed dog. We got him at 12 weeks and has been doing great overall! But I have a few questions that have been tickling the back of my brain.
1- we do enforced naps in the crate, he will go in to his crate willingly and will only protest slightly on occasion and will whine when he wakes up. With the being said we've realized he will not nap restfully unless the crate is covered and some kind of noise playing. With that being said is this a negative? I know puppies need a lot of rest and we usually do 23-3 hours awake (we don't force him to stay awake) and let him sleep for as long as he needs, lately he only seems to be restfully sleeping for an hour or so at a time. I know he's getting older and needs less sleep but at what point if at all should I attempt to remove the cover and noise? I feel like him only being able to sleep with those things might be a negative. Now I will say he does take cat naps on the ground if we are cleaning or hanging out so he does settle outside of the crate just not for the deep sleep he needs.
2- I tend to over think but, our pup has no interest in playing really, you'll try to initiate play and he'll chase maybe twice and then stop or he'll just drop whatever you were trying to play with. He never actively seeks out a toy except for a couple seconds and otherwise would rather just follow us around and lay at our feet (there is nothing wrong with him medically I think he's just a pretty chill guy) any pointers on how to initiate play? Or is it ok to just let him do what he wants and wander around (he's 95% potty trained so he has quite a bit of freedom) his only real interest are bully sticks and training for his food. We do use puzzle toys man's everything but those things don't take much time so we're engaged fully for about 30 minutes with estirar trading enrichment or attempted play but the rest of the time he's just doing nothing (which I also know is good for him the learn) but will all that for the question of does anyone else's puppies not play really? And would rather just be around you? And how do you initiate play or get them interested!