At wits end - golden retriever

[caif90]

Hi All,

Hoping other golden retriever owners can reassure me. We have a 15 month english cream retriever who is driving me absolutely bonkers atm.

We went through 3 months of puppy training when he was 3-6 months old which he was good as good at. Outside of training he didn't always do what we asked but we tried to practice everything as much as possible. Walking to heel wasn't practiced loads as we got comfortable taking him off the lead. Recall was ok when there were no other distractions, but if there was another dog we'd pop him back on the lead.

My husband and I have just had our first child who's now 10 weeks. But our goldie is driving me insane. We've also just moved house to a new area so walks are new to him here. He pulls like crazy 90% of the walks and I won't take him off lead atm because of it being a new area and he's lost all recall. Doesn't come back when called. Chases after squirrels, birds, you name it! When I have baby strapped to me it's actually a little dangerous because parts of the route can be slippy. He's started barking at night in his crate and will not stop at all. He digs holes in the garden. Jumps on the counter. He runs outside when he hears other dogs barking and barks incessantly.

Is this just adolescence? Planning on getting him snipped around 18 months but tearing my hair out atm.

Is this normal?

I feel your pain.

The only thing I found that ever got our golden retrievers tired physically was swimming, so if there's a shallow stream, try it out and ensure they are able to swim, but most are natural swimmers.

We did training with both of them, and the dog trainer would say that pulling is a dominance trait, and it really needs to be dealt with to ensure the dog doesn't become more dominant. I don't know it this is true, but doing training definitely helped.

I would ensure that you and your DH take turns feeding the dog as they associate who feeds them with them with who is, 'top dog.'

The great thing about golden retrievers is that they want to please.

I found the dogmatic collar the best of the over the nose type leads. It's game changing.

Hi sounds bored to me. He needs way more exercise. To practice recall - I suggest you try baking pieces of pork- they will keep up at room temperature up to a week once cooked.