Help me like my dog again...

[MiseryBusiness]

Ok so maybe I'm being a bit dramatic. I do love her but... She's at that age now and every day just seems like such a battle.

She 6 months old now. She chews everything she can get hold of - except her own toys.

She suddenly has absolutely no recall, I have to spend 5 minutes in the garden trying to get her back in every time she goes to the toilet.

She chews DD1's hair any time she goes within a metre of her.

She now pulls terribly on a lead which she has never done before and we've recently moved to a different country where dog arent allowed off lead anywhere.

If the DCs have any toy out at all she has to be shut out of the room because she will try and chew them. She does understand No and will leave it for 2 minutes before she is at it again. She's exhausting.

We recently switched to raw feeding. Our older dog seems to be doing great on it but puppy has started moulting so much more. I can literally pull chunks of hair out all over her body constantly so i'm having to vaccum at least 3 - 4 times per day and that doesnt even come close to picking it all up so I think she is going to have to go back onto dry food.

I dont know... I'm not by any means giving up on her and I know its probably my fault but good lord she is stressing me out!

Sorry to vent but any suggestions are welcome!

I feel your pain. Jasper is 7 months old now, almost full size yet with the brain of a puppy. He's clumsy, messy, destructive given the chance and a bit of a sod truth be told. I've stepped up the training again, so every time I go in to the kitchen I grab a handful of treats and spend a minute or two going over the basics. We're working on 'settle', 'stay' and 'leave it' the most at the moment so I can get some control when he's hyper. I'm also reinforcing the crate/bed = good thing by dropping treats in regularly. I make sure that he gets a good walk/run every morning, which helps massively with his behaviour through the day. I make him work for everything now, so if he wants a toy, a game, to go out etc, he has to sit, or give me the paw etc. This all seems to be helping, and gets him to focus on me more which helps when we're out and about. His recall is great if I'm holding a squeaky ball, so I go everywhere with one. I think it's very common to find this stage wearing, but I keep telling myself that it'll be worth it in the end when I have a calm, friendly, obedient dog .

Thanks Chickens

I guess it's not that bad is it? She is so funny and just looking at her face makes me larf.
I dont rememeber Dog1 being this hard, she is way more laid back.
She is very good with her basic commands, sit, lay down, leave it, paw etc. Does all these without fail but the moment she leaves the house, even just for a wee in the garden everything just goes to shit.
I will try to up the training. She gets plenty of exercise.
I'm hoping this moulting thing is a stage or something too.

Jasper had a big moult a few weeks ago, so around 6 months. I wonder if it's shedding the puppy coat or something? It's definitely better now :)

OMG, 6 months - its only 4 months ago for us, but what a difference a few months can make

Its only now I'm suddenly thinking 'hey, I'm getting stressed about other things, but not the dog - what happened to that?!' or on the rare occasion he does jump up at dd2, or chew something he's not meant to (he has a penchant for doorstops), I am almost shocked.

It gets better, honest - and I bet she's far cuter than my great gallumphing adolescent 10 month old