Biting golden retriever

[Yummymummy2020]

We have a 12 week old retriever pup who is very cute but upgraded from being Mouthy to hard biting which draws blood. We have tried a couple of things such as distraction with something else to bite, loud ouches, turning away but nothing is helping! We have experience with dogs but have never had this trouble before. I know she is only a baby but we are hoping to figure out a way to try improve the situation as I feel it’s worse she has gotten rather than better! She is growing by the day so don’t want her to hurt anyone when she is larger and time is running out as she will be even bigger in the next few weeks. Has anyone any advice? She gets plenty of company and is played with and occupied with small periods of basic training, although I’m not seeing much improvement with that either yet! She isn’t allowed to mingle with other dogs or go walking yet as she isn’t fully vaccinated but the last shots are in the next week or two I believe! Thank you!

[BiteyShark]

My dog was very mouthy as a puppy. I had holes in my jeans as he would launch at me and hang on and it hurt.

The only thing that worked for me was timeouts. As soon as he started we separated him from us for a few minutes using baby gates or crates. Distractions, standing still, toys didn't work but what did work was biting equals boring time on his own.

It took several weeks but it did get better. At 12 weeks old mine was teething and very bitey so don't expect it to stop immediately as it takes time.

[adaline]

Ours was very bitey and mouthy at that age - they're teething and need to chew on things to alleviate the pain. Plus, dogs explore the worlds with their mouths, so the two issues combined can make for a very mouthy dog!

For us, we had to ignore him completely. Squealing/shouting out only made him even more excited - we had to get turn around, avoid any contact and cross arms and just ignore him. Biting got him no attention, sitting calmly got him treats/fusses/attention.

It did take a few weeks (basically once he stopped teething) and after that he was much better.

[Yummymummy2020]

@BiteyShark thank you, that’s what we will try next, there are so many suggestions online and some of them are border line cruel so we were not willing to try them, but we will put her in her playpen/crate to see will that help when it starts. It began as playful but now I feel she is properly biting and locking on and she is also jumping snapping at faces which really freaked me out as after having big dogs in the past we never had that trouble, maybe we just got really lucky but this dog is wild!!! I just don’t want to be that owner whom nobody wants to visit over the dog!!!

[Wolfiefan]

It’s a puppy thing. My first put holes in my clothes, me and the children too.
One thing we were told was have enormous fluffy toys within your reach but out of theirs. When they start you wave the toy at their eye height in a figure of eight to get their attention then toss the toy away from you. Let them murder it and remove it.
We have an 11 week old wolfhound pup. I also give her a towel to bite and wrestle with.
Yelping etc tends to overexcite them and make it worse.
It passes.

[Yummymummy2020]

@adaline I’m so glad to hear yours got better after a few weeks, I was reading online some take nearly a year and I was worried then that this was going to be how it is for a long time!!! I will try completely ignoring her also when she starts, only trouble is she dosent seem too bothered she is happy to be attacking my legs irrespective of my reaction! Hopefully the teething will stop soon now and she will settle down for us a bit! I don’t mind her being crazy it’s literally just the biting is enough to drive you mad!!!

[Wolfiefan]

Distraction is also good. I’m taking current pup out to blow off some made steam when she starts. Or a minute of training? Or anything that makes them use their brain.

[adaline]

I'd say by about five months he was pretty much "there", although he's nearly two now and can still get mouthy if he's overexcited!

[BiteyShark]

Same as adaline 5-6 months of age it got much better but he did still have his moments after that.

It will get better but at the moment it feels relentless and I bet you are thinking you will end up with a biting aggressive dog. I really thought that but looking back I can see he was just a normal bitey over excited puppy.

[FleasAndKeef]

Remember that puppies get more bitey/mouthy when they are over tired and over stimulated too- like children 😂

Try and focus on calm, quiet activities, especially if it has been a busy Christmas week, and hopefully that will help!

[Bobstergirl]

It can be hard but it also helps to work out what happens before the biting eg over stimulated bored tired excited etc

This means you can control and change the situation before the biting kicks off. Sometimes sidetracking with scatter feeding can break the cycle and get things calm and on an even keel again.

Some golidies just love holding things in their mouth so we used an old sock stuffed with other old socks and she would carry this about - which also prevented any biting.

[Yummymummy2020]

Thanks so much everyone, I’m really glad others have had a similar experience as I was really starting to worry we were going to have serious behaviour issues that Would be really difficult to correct as she got older! It’s still such early days but it’s like she takes a growth spurt every day, it really is like having a little baby in the house! We love her to bits but we also know how important these first few months are to her long term behaviour so I’m relieved to hear she likely will improve with time!!!😅

[Wolfiefan]

My first drove me to tears on numerous occasions.
Fleas is right. Little one was being a bitey loon. Just put her in her pen and she’s now zonked!!

[CharlieB93]

Had exactly the same problem with our (boy) golden! He was so naughty up until about 20 weeks. A dog trainer suggested sealing some stones in a tin can and shaking it behind his bum every time he nipped (sounds mental and borderline cruel I know) it was literally the only thing that stopped him. The dog trained said it was because he would relate biting to being startled and hence stop him wanting to do it.

Anyhow, he eventually grew out of it and was the most brilliant family dog, we lost him in Feb this year and my heart is still broken now. Fantastic breed.

[Dreamersandwishers]

I had a similar issue with my lab puppy - holes in the backs of my jeans if I turned away from him.
Vet told me to gently and calmly cover his snout with my hands while saying no. Worked a treat. He’s very gentle these days.

[heatseeker14]

We used timeouts in our house too. 2 mins of alone time in his pen every time he went on a biting rampage. We said ‘no biting’ as he went in and when we got him back out 2 mins later. He soon got the message. I too was very worried about the amount he was biting. He loved to attack my husband as soon as he got in from work. The kids would be jumping on the sofa to get out of his way. He rarely bites now at 5 months old. If he does, it’s when he is hyped up.

[Spotty528]

Our pup is 16 weeks and is still a bitey little bugger, I absolutely hate it and can’t wait for it to stop-we do distraction with toys, time outs and firm no.