Puppy driving me mad, please help

[coffeewithmilk]

Our golden is 12 weeks old and had initially been very good with toilet training and very gentle natured. All of a sudden in the last week, he has become very aggressive with his nipping that it hurts a lot and it doesn't stop. We've tried distraction techniques but it's getting very painful.
He's also now started going to the toilet all over the kitchen, so completed regressed to like we've done no training with him.
Barking a lot, humping my legs constantly.. please tell me it's just a phase?!

I know goldens are very gentle and kind natured but this is the complete opposite. Am I doing something wrong!?

Thank you!

If your puppy bites you, you need to ignore the behaviour and remove “yourself” from the interaction without any drama, no need to say anything or do anything.
•
This means to your puppy the fun is over, the play has ended and more importantly the attention is over.
•
If you behaviour is to hard for you to ignore then go behind a door or baby gate where your puppy does not have access to continue nipping at you.
•
If your puppy tries to nip at you when you return, remove yourself again- It may seem a really repetitive process but a really important lesson to learn. When your puppy offer appropriate interaction (no nipping) you stay. Any nipping and you go away..
•
You should begin to see a major decrease in the intensity of biting as well as the amount of biting attempts within a few days.

Other things to think about

• It is really important to have a management place for your puppy, such as a play pen. It gives you a break from your puppy and is a clam place for your puppy to settle down if he
gets to excited.
• Consider your puppies preference for permissible items to chew! (non-human items – so no slippers or shoes, this will end in disaster!) Think about the texture, some puppies like soft latex toys to mouth, other like plush toys or rubbery toys (often a hard chew toy is not the same!) Consider items for your puppy to chew or lick- such as Kong toys or lick mats to
help keep them entertained.
• Things that we may think are punishing, like pushing your puppy away, yelling at him etc, can be considered fun behaviours for your puppy and can encourage biting

An over aroused puppy is a bitey puppy! Puppies need a lot of sleep so look to increase this if possible.

RE toilet training you will need to take your puppy out more regularly for a few weeks yet before you can trust them to ask to be let out. It is harder in the wetter weather but still has to be done.

You have done nothing wrong you just have a very typical normal puppy – this too will pass

I am on my 4th Goldie and they are little land sharks
As for being very gentle and kind natured Some are and some aren’t.
With a lot of time and effort you should end up with a lovely dog even if it doesn’t feel like it now

Thank you both so much for your replies!
I'll take everything on board and hope for an improvement over the next couple of weeks!

Also join the Golden Retriever group on FB if you use it
Lots of valuable help and support on there

We employed a "puppy whisperer" basically a dog trainer, wasn't very expensive, had a couple of sessions, got some good tips and implemented them, money well spent

With ours, we do a little “ow” or “Yelp” and turn our back on him when he bites us. He usually stops. We’ve noticed his behaviour is wild when he’s over tired, so worth making sure it’s not that.

Also, it’s just a phase. Puppies really hard work, and always worth the effort when they turn into the lovely dog that you wanted.

Our golden is now 7 months so over the worst of the biting, but that 12 week sort of time was really bad with biting for a while. I'd say the main thing we learned was to anticipate when he was going to get like that and make sure he had enough rest, wasn't over stimulated, and had plenty of distraction to hand (chews, Kongs, etc to slow him down, not toys).