# Help with Doug



## Haig2010 (Jul 31, 2013)

Hello!
My husband and I have a 6 month old golden that we are crazy about. We bought a new home and added Doug to our family. We are both very concerned about one particular thing though, Doug seems to "turn" on us. Its scary to me and I have SO many bite mark and am bruised all up and down my legs because of him. Doug becomes aggressive/ territorial when we tell him "no" or we are finally able to get whatever he has away from him. For example, today he was on the sofa trying to bite the blanket. All I said was "no" and then "here" so he would follow me out of the room. By the way he just got back a few weeks ago from a puppy training camp and came back so much better than before as far and leash training, and following simple commands, respecting us during his feeding time and manners in the kitchen. He does great at all of that. Anyways, after he got off the sofa, he charged at me full speed, jumped at me and began biting me wherever he could with all his might. This is the way he usually responds to us telling him "no". I walk away and he follows biting at my hands, legs, whatever. At the same time he will also start barking at me. I have tried ignoring it, which talks a lot of patients, keeping the leash on him so I can get better control of the situation, bitter spray, water, moving towards him which sends him into zoomies and then back to biting me, grabbing him which in no way helps because it makes him bite me even more. We have been reading the forum for a while now and have tried many things that other have mentioned. I don't want to do the treat thing. I do not want for his treats to have association with that type of behavior. Now, once he is calm I will give a treat. I have even tried giving him a toy or something else but he can't get over the fact that I have taken something away from him or told him "no". I say I am scared and sad because I wonder what we have done wrong. We give him the best, we don't have any children and he is like our son. I am a kindergarten teacher and am home with him all summer, but this has been a rough summer as far as trying to get him through this. I want so badly for him to just be at ease with me but I find my self having to put him in his crate and leaving him there because I am afraid of what he will do to me while my husband is at work. We made a commitment to raise him and give him a loving home. We would appreciate any advice, words of encouragement, anything.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Hello!! Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry to hear of your problems with Doug. May I ask how much exercise he is getting? I wonder if he is wound up tight and the exercise will help release the pent up energy. I see he went to a boarding boot camp. Have you tried basic obedience classes with him and you? 

Please know, you are not alone. We are here to support you.  

Tayla's mom had a dickens of a time with Tayla as a pup. I hope she chimes in with her story. 

Do you reward him excessively for good, quiet behaviors? If "no" is a cue for him, can you try redirecting his behavior in other ways? Instead of saying no, you can't have this. Try: Doug, come here and let's go play! 

I hope this helps. 


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

You have done nothing wrong. You just have a demon possessed puppy. I'm kidding. Tayla was just like this. We named her Satan's daughter until she was 1. There are many posts about puppy biting. I have pictures of my arms, legs and stomach with bruises for 8 months. Her specialty was what I call pinch biting. She'd use her front teeth and jump up and grab flesh. She loved the under arm area a lot. She also crinkled up her nose and snap. God we hated her. Our best defense was a compressed air can. Never spray them and if you have a partner in the room that is not the focus of the biting at the time have them hide the can behind their back, spray it at the same time giving the no bite command. Then, when the stop, even for a second, give an alternate command like sit and reward them. Its a tough period for some of us. By 1 year Tayla had mainly stopped. She will now only do it if overly excited and having the zoomies. Good luck.


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## Darthsadier (May 17, 2013)

I don't have any advice but I can say that you are not alone. Sadie is a crazy 7 month old red girl and seems to still be biting me but not boyfriend. I have signed her up for grade 2 at the school we take her for training and I'm hoping it helps. Please let me know if you find anything that works. I'm going to look for that compressed air can I hear t works wonders. .


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## Pammie (Jan 22, 2011)

Darthsadier said:


> I'm going to look for that compressed air can I hear t works wonders. .


Amazon.com: 50ml Pet corrector: Pet Supplies
<--- heres a link to the compressed air. It does work wonders! Like Taylas Mom said you need to make sure you don't spray it at the dog. Best scenario is someone else has the can and they spray it when the undesired behavior starts- that way the dog doesn't know where the hissssssssssssssssssss is coming from! I used it by myself many times though and it still stopped the craziness.


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

To this day, when Tayla is being over-the-top crazy all I have to do is reach for it and she stops. Remember to always reward the behavior the second it stops.


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## GinnyinPA (Oct 31, 2010)

First, remember that Doug is still just a puppy. He will outgrow this behavior, if given the chance. How much exercise is he getting? How much time are you spending on training with him? Both make a huge difference. Keeping him in a crate isn't teaching him anything; it just allows him to recoup his energy, so he has more when he is released. A lot of bad behavior comes from boredom and frustration. As a puppy, he hasn't learned control yet. That comes with time and work. 

We adopted a 3 year old who had been neglected, left tied outdoors all the time. He was a complete terror when we brought him home. He didn't know how to control his energy or his emotions, so he would act out, by jumping and biting like a puppy does. I was starting to get scared of him, after a couple of days of getting attacked.

We hired a trainer who taught us the basics, so we could work with him. She was big on not allowing him to feel like he was in control: he was not allowed on the furniture, not allowed to be first in or out of the doors, fed only after spending a few minutes training, etc. Since I was the one who bore the brunt of his frustration, I was primary feeder - though my husband shares that now. He needed to look to me as leader and as the source of good things - food, brushing, walks, attention, etc. It made a difference. 

Then we worked hard on basic obedience. He sits every time we open the door, and isn't allowed out until we tell him "Okay!" When Ben starts to get wound up, a quick "Down!" works to rein him in. Sometimes he is reluctant, but he learned to obey sit and down very well. We took several classes with Ben, and he learned to work with us, and mostly to listen to us. He's not perfect, but then we don't expect him to be. 

Within a few months, he was a very different dog. He rarely loses control any more. Sometimes when we've been gone a while, he'll get the zoomies when he's let out back, but there's no jumping and biting. We still have the spray bottle that we used the first couple of weeks when he would jump on me, but all I have to do is show it to him and he'll calm down immediately. He just needs to be reminded. I've probably only had to get it out twice in the past year.


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## Haig2010 (Jul 31, 2013)

*Doug*

Thank you to all who have replied. We will be trying the compressed air. As far as walking and play time he gets that everyday. He is inside most of the day and when we work on things it's usually inside right now because of the Texas summer heat. We had a temp of 104 today. A majority of his outside time is at night and we really try to tire him out. Any ideas on ways to exercise him inside? Has anyone tried using a treadmill with their dog? The treadmill would not be used as a total replacement for walks, just as a complement when weather doesn't allow. I will toss his toys around and let him run around the living room holding my breath that he doesn't run into something and knock himself out. I practice his commands and have him sit and wait then I will call " here" for him to come to me. He does well with his commands which I am thankful for.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Thank you so much for updating us. 

How much time does he get for exercise? And does he seem tired afterwards? Some dogs need more exercise than others. Like my Bear, he needs at least an hour of hard physical activity plus 30 minutes of mental activities to truly wear him out. Bear could easily walk 5 miles without getting tired. 

Some mental games we use are nosework (scent games), various trick training, revisiting old commands, "where's ______?" games. 

Do you have access to a pool? A lot of Goldens enjoy pool time to beat the heat and swimming is a wonderful pastime. 

With Bear, we trained him to go to his mat/bed and to settle down with a toy. We would toss treats to him and tell him good boy when he was quiet. He began to understand that calm = good things. 

If the canned air doesn't work - I have heard people use a can of pennies to rattle. The point is to derail their obnoxious train of thought so you can redirect them. 


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Train. Train. Train. It almost doesn't matter what as long as you get into a solid habit of training every day. It doesn't have to be a long time. Your pup will look at you differently. He will start thinking. You and he will have a vocabulary for communicating. 

I did this with my dog: http://www.dogdaysnw.com/doc/OverallRelaxationProtocol.pdf

I liked it because it was easy to follow. It gave us something to work on and I didn't have to plan anything. Note: it took us about a week to move through each day. 

Indoor exercise is hard for these big dogs. I did discover the practicing jumping through a hoop wears my dog out. He's nearly two though, so it's ok for him to do some jumping. Also weaving through my legs is good. He moves a lot, I move a little.  That one is easy to teach by luring with treats.

Casper loves games. It gives us stuff to do together when he's in an active mood. We just made up a new one with his chuck it kick ball last week. We have fetching games. Push it down the stairs. Food puzzles. Run run run. Tummy rub.

Just had another thought. Doug might have decided/learned that "no" means wrinkle his nose and attack. Sometimes they learn some weird associations. You could try something other than no. Perhaps teach Off to get him off the couch. They he gets a reward for doing something right.


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## Tricia (Jul 30, 2013)

I am interested in this thread because my Charlie also got very snarly with me today when I told her ' no'. She had a bad morning and got aggressive over her food when I was close. I wrote about this in my post ' worried from france' but it has got worse.

It is good to read that others have same problems and you are not the only one. The support is so reassuring. We also have a problem with intense heat in the south of france at the moment, so any training has to be done early or late. Most of the day is spent sleeping which means an excess of energy. I have now got 'Mine' which I think will be very useful. Plus the suggested tasks from another reply. Things to do indoors in the cool.


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## Haig2010 (Jul 31, 2013)

We have been training a lot the past few days. I have been using treats like dog treats or very small pieces of apples. When Doug has been getting in one if his moods I just try my best to walk away command sit many times and even sometimes show him a treat if I really need him to stop right away. As soon as he stops I paise him in a big way. Hugs, high fives and then a small treat. I have been doing the training from the PDF that was attached on an earlier post here and it has helped. Doug already knew many commands, but it was still good mental exercise. Now as our third day into it he still has his moments, but not as severe as before and the best thing is that I can break him from the state of mind he is in at the time. It might take a minute and a few nips at me, but before that was never possible. It's improvement, which is good. Also , he does not always need a treat now.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

Congrats!! Keep up the great work!!!


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Great update!


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