# Help with 5 month old golden retriever puppy biting



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

Hello all! 

New member to this forum (just signed up) and have been using this forum as my bible during the first 5 months of bringing up my male pup Winston. He's more of a white retriever as you'll notice from the pic below. 

I've always dreamed of owning a retriever and after finishing college and getting a stable job I decided the time was right. The IQ and responsiveness of this breed blew away my expectations and I've realized a little patience and repetition can have them understand literally any word that comes out of your mouth. 

He has been a great dog so far and has learnt all the basic commands (Sit, stay, down, come) and owing to our large garden learnt the difference of inside & outside very easily. He stopped relieving himself in the house by the time he was 4 months old and picked up on things we don't like in the house very easily. 

Lately over the past 2 weeks I've been having this lingering problem with him. My sister and me get back from work by around 6 pm everyday and after we feed him his last meal he goes absolutely crazy. We have a full-time gardener/care-taker who lives in our out house and usually takes Winston out 2-3 times a day for a walk or just minds him in the garden so he doesn't eat plastic or small bottle caps etc. He's very well behaved with everyone all through the day but during that 6-8 pm window he has turned into a total brat. 

It usually starts with me having to take him out with a ball so he can play fetch for some time and get a good run, or we go for a run/jog in the park to tire him out. Off late he gets these sudden bursts of excitement and starts to jump up and viciously bite my hand, trousers, shirt, ankles etc. The more I push him off he goes crazier and if I try to stay still or walk away he literally tries to corner me till I play this game with him again. 

He usually gets over these things within a few weeks but this has been so uncontrollable it's scary for guests and the rest of my family who are not familiar with dogs. I know they are the most gentle and loving creatures and he's just trying to express himself or get me to play with him more energetically and is just expressing it in the wrong way. 

I'm not too worried that this will be a problem going forward but I want to know from experienced people what is the best way to curb this ASAP. I honestly believe these dogs can understand anything if we speak in their language and we are repetitive. 

Would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me in this regard and give me some advice on calming him down. Clearly a physical reaction is what he is expecting from me and everytime he gets it he goes crazier. 

Thanks a lot! (There's a pic of him bellow, handsome fella right?)


----------



## Doug (Jul 17, 2010)

Ha ha yes handsome indeed

Welcome to the forum!

This is totally normal for a dog of this age.
Hudson usually has a play time at sunset, which is just after his dinner time.
I use this time to take him for a walk or to do some training (fetch or hide and seek) with him although these days his play time is fairly mild. 

Good luck, he sounds like a wonderful fun loving golden
It won't last forever.


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

Thanks Doug! Very reassuring to hear that. Winston has around the same play time schedule as you had mentioned for Hudson and is usually very active at this time. Now that I think of it this excited jump-biting started after I exposed him to fetch in an open area, he was very good in a confined area such as the courtyard of my house. 

I'm more concerned if my method of correcting him has been encouraging him or whether there are better ways to do it. I usually push him off with my knee or put him down on his back and look him in the eye and say no. If it gets really out of hand I try to walk away and leave him alone for a minute or two (something like a timeout) which works for a while but once he knows my mood is back to adoring him he decides he can jump and bite again.

Another question on the biting, I've read on various posts that giving your hand to them to nibble or chew on when they are teething is ok but we need to keep in mind that when it gets out of hand to correct him. I've seen conflicting ideas on this as some people say it's ok to let them do that but some people say they should never think having your mouth in their hand is ok?

Hudson and Tia look like wonderful dogs as well! Thanks again for your response.


----------



## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

The rule in our house is that teeth never touch our hands. Our girl Kye was a mouthy puppy too and in her case, every time she started going for our hands or arms I stuffed a stuffed toy in her mouth. She would prance around with her toy and give me a moment to find another game to play or outside activity. When she was over the top (usually at sunset) I would take her out for a long walk that included areas she could run, chase balls, or thrown sticks. When she was a bit calmed down, we would work on all the basics and treats freely given for each task she completed. At that age they want so bad to be good, but the world has opened up for them and it is so hard to contain all that puppy energy. 

What you have described is perfectly normal to a baby 5 mo. old. Just keep up the training and see if you can't find a safe place he can have a longer leash walk/run to work off that extra energy. In about a year you will be writing of how you miss these puppy times! Your boy is beautiful!


----------



## MercyMom (Dec 19, 2011)

Hey there!:wave: Of course you wanted to make the dream of owning a Golden come true. Who could blame anybody for having such a dream? Anyway, I understand your frustrations with mouthing. All Golden puppies go through a landshark phase. Mercy took forever to get out of hers.:yuck: I still would not hesitate to get a second Golden. She still mouths but only when you do things that make her uncomfortable like brushing her tail and doing her nails. Sometimes once in a while when I am trying to get her to play with a toy while I am sitting on the couch, she will want to mouth my feet also! I think the best thing to do is to confine him when he mouths if redirecting, yelping or ignoring do not help.


----------



## SusanLloyd (Sep 30, 2013)

Harvey is going through the biting phase just now. Mostly tearing at the hem of my shirt or cardigan sleeves, but also a lightning fast turn of the head and then a nip at my hands. He has his adult teeth and it really hurts! 

We are getting it under control by stopping playing with him and walking away as soon as he does it, and also making sure he has a toy in his mouth if we're handling him when he's super-excited. He only seems to do it indoors.

From what I can remember of our last pup he just grew out of it. Eventually


----------



## Articuno (Oct 19, 2013)

The rule about hands is entirely your decision, in our case Poppy doesn't mouth us at all so we encourage it a little bit to promote bite inhibition.
If we put our hands in her mouth and she chews them, at even the SLIGHTEST bit of pressure with the teeth, we immediately say OOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!! really loudly. She is very good and basically never does it unless we're playing tug and she accidentally gets our hands!
I'd be worried about puppies who don't mouth enough to learn how soft they need to be with their teeth.


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

Articuno said:


> The rule about hands is entirely your decision, in our case Poppy doesn't mouth us at all so we encourage it a little bit to promote bite inhibition.
> If we put our hands in her mouth and she chews them, at even the SLIGHTEST bit of pressure with the teeth, we immediately say OOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!! really loudly. She is very good and basically never does it unless we're playing tug and she accidentally gets our hands!
> I'd be worried about puppies who don't mouth enough to learn how soft they need to be with their teeth.


Articuno, this is the strategy I've been told works best with retrievers since they're such mouth oriented dogs. I do believe in terms of natural training for a dog this makes the most sense so hence I've been going with it. Was just worried that it's developing a sense in Winston's head that he can do it all the time (does get annoying when I have a shower and I have saliva all over my hand straight away!). 

Thanks for your advice though it was very helpful


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

SusanLloyd said:


> Harvey is going through the biting phase just now. Mostly tearing at the hem of my shirt or cardigan sleeves, but also a lightning fast turn of the head and then a nip at my hands. He has his adult teeth and it really hurts!
> 
> We are getting it under control by stopping playing with him and walking away as soon as he does it, and also making sure he has a toy in his mouth if we're handling him when he's super-excited. He only seems to do it indoors.
> 
> From what I can remember of our last pup he just grew out of it. Eventually


Hey Susan, will definitely keep in it in mind to have a stand by toy when he's playing fetch in case he gets too excited. I've started playing fetch with him in a smaller area now where I have a way to block him off with a door as soon as he mouths too violently. This helps me reinforce how wrong it is instantly when he does it rather than the 20 second walk to some place which makes him think I'm running away from him and it's a game to chase me and mouth my hand. 

Looking forward to him growing out of it!


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

Deber said:


> The rule in our house is that teeth never touch our hands. Our girl Kye was a mouthy puppy too and in her case, every time she started going for our hands or arms I stuffed a stuffed toy in her mouth. She would prance around with her toy and give me a moment to find another game to play or outside activity. When she was over the top (usually at sunset) I would take her out for a long walk that included areas she could run, chase balls, or thrown sticks. When she was a bit calmed down, we would work on all the basics and treats freely given for each task she completed. At that age they want so bad to be good, but the world has opened up for them and it is so hard to contain all that puppy energy.
> 
> What you have described is perfectly normal to a baby 5 mo. old. Just keep up the training and see if you can't find a safe place he can have a longer leash walk/run to work off that extra energy. In about a year you will be writing of how you miss these puppy times! Your boy is beautiful!


Hey Deber, great advice and it's similar to what I do. I try to tire him out physically first so that when I do some basic training with treats he doesn't have the energy to get distracted by leaves, insects etc. Will definitely try to do longer walks rather than fetch. 

From all the advice I've been getting I think I started playing fetch in a huge outdoor area too soon since I don't have the option of giving him a timeout to correct his mouthing instantly. It's almost a 30 second to 2 minute gap before I can get away from him or confine him which then is impossible for him to associate that it was because of the biting he's been given a time out. In fact yesterday when he started getting really hyper and biting, jumping, scrunching his face I dragged him out to the door and left him out (he could see me through the glass door) he barked for 2 minutes and then went on to do the most energetic zoomies I've ever seen him do. It was like he just had 4 cans of red bull! So I see what you mean about the world opening up and them not knowing how to contain the puppy energy. 

Also realized from all the advice that patience is the key and it's only a phase  

Haha I highly doubt I'm going to miss the mouthing times but will definitely miss the puppy stuff they're always up to.


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

Would just like to thank you all for your advice and help. It's amazing to know there are so many people out there who are so passionate about goldens! 

Here's to us retriever parents and I hope you all have a great New year


----------



## SusanLloyd (Sep 30, 2013)

Apologies for bumping this but it was the only fairly recent thread I could find about biting in the age range 5-6 months when the adult teeth have come through. I posted in it to say how we were dealing with Harvey's post-teething biting by making sure we had a toy to hand when handling him and also that we were walking away when he did bite.

I know he will grow out of it but I have a question. After walking away (which I've done several times today!) what then? Harvey looks very dejected and obviously is getting the message but what should I be doing then? Resuming play fairly quickly? Or ignoring him for a longer period, maybe going off and doing something else in another room? Or doesn't it matter as it's just the repetition that will get the message through?


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

SusanLloyd said:


> Apologies for bumping this but it was the only fairly recent thread I could find about biting in the age range 5-6 months when the adult teeth have come through. I posted in it to say how we were dealing with Harvey's post-teething biting by making sure we had a toy to hand when handling him and also that we were walking away when he did bite.
> 
> I know he will grow out of it but I have a question. After walking away (which I've done several times today!) what then? Harvey looks very dejected and obviously is getting the message but what should I be doing then? Resuming play fairly quickly? Or ignoring him for a longer period, maybe going off and doing something else in another room? Or doesn't it matter as it's just the repetition that will get the message through?


Hi Susan, I've been doing the same exact thing since my first post and its been working wonders. His mouthing is almost negligible now and is clearly responding to 'no'. 

How long I leave him when I walk away is usually in proportion to how bad the biting is. I don't know if that's the right thing to do but if its very aggressive mouthing/biting its a longer timeout. The milder it is the shorter time I leave him for. In my opinion it seems to show him my levels of tolerance as well by not testing his patience too much. I'm open to opinions though so would love for experienced people to suggest?


----------



## kartikeya14 (Dec 30, 2013)

*Update*

Hi All, 

It's been around a month or so since the mouthing began. Glad to say there is a drastic improvement in Winston's behaviour and he seems to have identified me as the alpha. Still occasionally does it to my sister when she doesn't play with him but overall I'm sure he gets the idea that mouth is a no. 

I have also completely stopped letting him bite any body part or clothing of anyone since I figured he's past the age of bite inhibition. Thanks all for your help and hope your lovely puppies are growing up well too!


----------

