Puppy regret

[TheTwirlyPoos]

Never thought I'd write that.

She's a year and 2 months. In the house she's a dream. Like you wouldn't know she was here.
Walking is good. She will stay with me off lead in the woods. If there is another dog then I struggle but usually walking away will do it and she will follow me.
She sleeps all night, eats well, was house trained so easily etc etc etc.

But..

She steals stuff from the house and chews it in the garden all the time. I've lost count of the stuff I've found destroyed. She has kongs, brain toys, she eats at least an hour a day exercise, loads of stuff to chew on but it is relentless
She is also very boisterous with other dogs. I took her to an enclosed dog area today, there were five tier dogs when we got there. Within minutes they'd all left and it wasnt a coincidence.
She gets so over excited outside..in the garden she will go for the kids, Juno up around them, mouth them. I've tried distraction, I've tried keeping her occupied but it just doesn't work. I'm sick of my kids being scared and crying from the garden.
Ugh. Today was horrible.

What breed is she?

I’m guessing a Labrador?

@redtrain123 i was also picturing a Labrador.

can you seek the advice of a behaviourist?

Prob not what you want to hear but puppies usually calm down about 3 yrs old. Thats been my experience anyway. They are a lot of work (and cuteness) before then.

Depends on the breed? But for many this is normal

They calm down a lot after age 2, this is the hardest bit

What breed is she? Some kind of sheepdog? A Collie?

I am guessing a cockapoo? Bonkers but gorgeous and can relate to everything you say. I once thought we had a poltergeist in the house as the electricity was going dead one appliance at a time and it turned out that the bugger has chewed through outside Christmas lights and every time we turned on another appliance or light it tripped.
They do calm down but do need lots of mental as well as physical stimulation as they are intelligent dogs and very lovely especially when they fall asleep after a busy day.

If she's a Lab or similar size, then at that age an hour's exercise a day isn't enough. She needs at least double that - 2 long walks a day. If she's tired she won't be so boisterous.

Teach your children to turn their backs on her when she jumps up and try not to squeal or shout as that will just excite her more.

Try and give her a good walk before you take her into a dog area. Again, if the edge is been taken off her energy she might be better behaved. One of my dogs is far too boisterous with any dogs he meets at the start of a walk - so I keep him well away until his excitement at being out has died down a bit, then his behaviour is better.

Our first Lab gradually took all my dcs soft toys out into the garden and chewed them up. Goes with the territory I'm afraid. You all need to be more scrupulous about putting things out of her reach.

More exercise and some basic training would help.

My friend got a cocker spaniel and even though they got him at 18 months AND exercised him for over 2 hours every day he still behaved as your dog is doing now. They persevered and things improved a lot. An hour isn't enough.

Sorry I missed out that key info!

She's a standard poodle
Most days she has two walks so would be around an hour and a half. We had a behaviourist in over the summer and he said that was right for her. Every walk we 'do' something. I've just taught her fetch (she wasn't interested for ages), we do hide and seek in the woods, or she will go for a run with my husband. I try and mix it up with on lead and off lead.
We had a friend who she loves comes round the other day but I didn't want her getting too much in the garden. We did an hour and a half walk which included hills and a good time playing with other dogs. We were in the garden and she was calm and then out of nowhere she starts with the barking and jumping.
In going to get a dog walker to take her once a week so she gets a good walk with other dogs.

I don't mean to sound defensive if I do, just trying to give a full picture.

We did puppy classes and I do 15 mins of training with her every day.

Does she have some slower calm sniffy walks? I mean at her own pace, just stopping and sniffing and picking up her pee mails etc? I wouldn't take her running tbh. That is not going to tire her brain out and is not much fun for her if she has to just keep up with the runner. (Also, 5 dogs in an enclosed dog park is waaaay too exciting.)

The chewing sounds like she is anxious and stressed about something, this could be a displacement activity. Does she have a very predictable steady routine or are you giving her too much stimulation by all the different walks and exercise?

Yep I try and mix it up so we will do an on lead along the path at her own pace

A run would never be her only walk that day.

She doesn't seem to be obsessively chewing just constantly bloody nicking stuff. I found a chewed tube of toothpaste in the garden today. She doesn't chew her paws or anything

We don't have set walk times particularly, she has breakfast and dinner at similar times but that's it. Every day is different with kids timetables and DH's working so it would be nigh impossible

There are other more experienced people on here and I'm sure you'll get lots of advice. I was advised early on that dog behaviour is 20% training and 80% management. I put a gate (a folding wooden one) to block off the kitchen and one to block the stairs. I put everything I could was out of reach.
You say puppy regret but if she is 14 months old then that sounds more like adolescence and honestly they turn into such pricks. The over exuberance is relatively easy to train. No attention until 4 paws on the ground. There is so much on YouTube (non aversive training methods).
My dog was also full on bitey face (lurcher) when playing with other dogs and they were quick to correct him or I removed him and he learned that it wasn't acceptable.
Honestly she doesn't sound unusual. Concentrate on training the behaviours you want and prevent it in the mean time. It will get better. My dog is now 4 and incredibly chilled out.

Have you considered a long line in the garden and place command? You go out with your dog and children. If the dog becomes over excited in any way she comes back to you and times out for a bit in place. If she hasn't got place in her repertoire then start by adding that. I usually train them to a spot, so a mat, a flat bed, even a small blanket or towel is fine just so the dog knows where it's expected to be. Train to go to the market and lay down. Reward. Walking around the dog on the mat. Reward etc. building up her tolerance for noise and chaos going on around her and time spent on the mat. With just the two of you to start with. It's a slow process. You need to teach her an off switch and this is what you're doing.

Then when her place is good, on a long line allow her to play in the garden with you as she normally would. Have her place. At random intervals. Then introduce children to the situation. If she gets at all over excited she has to come back and place. Every single time.

It's not something you can rush because you need it to be bulletproof. But it should stop the behaviour.

If that doesn't work or isn't something you manage you could consider sectioning off part of the garden so the kids have an area to play in and the dog can still go outside. So my mum's bouncy Labrador was never allowed at the top of our garden which was only a few steps up. She put a fence and a gate on it so we had somewhere to play without being jumped on, and also it was free of dog mess as the dog didn't go up there.

With the chewing, have you tried limiting her access to toys and rotating them. Introducing new ones etc. dogs get bored of the same stuff but you probably notice when you buy something new it's a novelty and they don't want to put it down. You want to swap things out so that everyday the new most exciting item is whatever you have decided it is. Not some random thing the dog has got off the floor. Poodles are clever they get bored of stuff really quickly. A toy they haven't seen for a week is as exciting as a brand new toy. Just keep it changed up. You could also try some of the slow feeder toys because they can keep them occupied for ages at a time. Busy dogs aren't stealing your toothpaste.

It's a horrible age, and feels like it will never end. Keep up with the good work and in 12 months, she will be a very different dog.

Also search on YouTube for relaxation protocol. My half asleep message isn't as easy to follow as I had hoped it would be lol.

I’ve never had a poodle but my malinois x was an absolute fucker for this till he was about 2 (/and a half). That’s the nicking things and chewing them - everything, all the time always - I used to be always balancing things in high places and trying out different stern drop voices, had more than one awful experience with kids toys/granny’s shawl etc.. it was relentless and exhausting and then he just grew up and immediately stopped it one day. Or all day everyday at least. One A day maybe. For a bit. Now he’s fine. Similar with the boisterousness but a few months later. They turn out really great in the end keep going!

How /when does she steal items? and what do you do when you find them? Do you catch her in the act or find the item afterwards? Mine would steal for a reaction, he got chased, he thought it was fun. It was things we had handled, shoes, slippers, books, remote controls.

A friend had success with tobasco sauce on these items, her dog hated it and stopped taking things. (Dog trainer suggested the sauce). Mine just grew out of it … eventually.

The garden jumping/nipping- she’s getting excited and wants to join in. Tell her no jump/no bite put her inside for ten mins, take her out, if she does it again back inside. Don’t turn it into a game of chase though. Remove her from the stimulation, it won’t matter if she’s run for two hours at that age, she won’t give a damn. She will grow out of it, but you need to teach her it’s inappropriate and that behaviour has consequences. Or as pp suggested fence off part of the garden, though will she bark to get to the excitement… could be annoying itself.

Praise /treat good behaviour. Don’t just punish the bad points.

The people saying additional exercise aren’t correct, a dog trainer I met said you just create an amazing athlete whilst still behaving like a bellend.

My dog (female lab) is now 2, she’s calmed down dramatically. She did all yours is doing now. We had to dog proof a lot, so she couldn’t get hold of things to chew, if she did chew we’d swap for one of her things. Peanut butter in a Kong is great. Chewing is a very stimulating activity for dogs and it’s good for them, she just needs to be chewing the right things.

Finding games are good for them, feed her by hiding her food all over the place, it mentally tires them out.

My kids are also brilliant at spending hours just mucking about with the dogs, doing really silly games that all of them enjoy. That helped to tire her out.

Yours will probably calm down around 2 and become excellent. Hang in there.

Young dogs are hard. You need ongoing classes. Poodles are super clever and do get bored easily. Look for a good reward based class near you that is ongoing. I am a trainer for a KC (volunteer) club and we often see dogs like this coming back after puppy classes have all been forgotten.

If she's stealing stuff then you're not managing her environment properly. Standard poodles are big dogs and very clever, so everything needs to put well out of her reach or in a drawer/cupboard/room that she doesn't have access to.

Baby gates and/or a crate would be useful if you can't supervise her or put everything away to safety.

In terms of walks you just need to stop her from getting the chance to behave like that with other dogs - if that means keeping her on a lead for now then that's what you'll have to do. She'll grow out of it but the more she gets a chance to practise, the more rewarding it will be and the harder you'll find it to get her to stop.

If she can't play nicely with the kids in the garden then she doesn't get to play out there with them unless you're right there to supervise. Have her on a longline attached to her harness so you can stop her from jumping etc. and practise getting your kids to stand "like a tree" and avoid eye contact so that she gets no reward or interaction from them.

Good luck - you're bang in the middle of the teenage phase unfortunately but it does get better!

I taught my young hooligan that 'knock it off' meant 'stop being a pain in the arse or you'll go at heel'. I did this when she bugging our older dog on walks. She's not the brightest, but she picked up pretty quickly.

Thanks everyone I'm reading everything and going to talk to DH tonight.

Re environment you're right, we always try but she ends up opening a door or grabbing something we didn't think she could get etc. Or our three year old goes to the loo and doesn't shut the door afterwards etc.
She's also a bugger for doing in the garden then refusing to come in so then the kids get jumped on cos I can't bloody get to her. When it's her and me her recall is great but if course the excitement gets too much.
I definitely got too cocky, she had a crate and the playroom was baby hated but we took them away when she seemed like she knew the rules...

It sounds a bit like you need to go back to basics with her - don't let her outside unsupervised, locks on internal doors and/or put the baby gates back up so she just can't access the toilet (or whatever) unless someone actively lets her in that part of the house.

They do lull you into a false sense of security for a few months before becoming arseholes teenagers.