# 10 week old aggression?



## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

It sounds pretty typical, she's looking for a playmate, and wanting to play the way puppies would play with each other. Obviously it's not acceptable and needs to be channeled into appropriate chewing/biting. Redirect her to a toy, physically put it in her mouth and encourage her to play with. If she loses interest, keep trying. If she is especially bad, I would pick her up (put something in her mouth first) and put her in her crate for a few minutes. 

Do you have any friends or family who have puppy friendly adult dogs she could play with? Adult dogs do a much better job of teach a puppy boundaries that people can. 

She very well could have NEEDED to go potty, which made her act that way, weird I know but sometimes body stimulation can cause crazy things to happen. The pooping was definitely not any kind of retaliation or tell your wife off, if you were thinking that. And please don't grab her muzzle or stick your finger down her throat, that will either encourage her to bite more, or scare her. 

Golden Retriever puppies are called landsharks just for this reason. Razor sharp puppy teeth and the urge to use them on everything in their path. It does get better as they get older. 

But you both really need to not be "terrified" of this puppy. She's not cujo.

Have you talked to a trainer? Better yet, have one come to your house and observe her behavior and give you some direction.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

I am going to start by saying your puppy is 70 days old. At this age most golden pups don't have any impulse control. They want what they want when they want it. They are considered landsharks. Have the trainers actually come out to your home and observed Hollie in action? What behaviors have you been working on with her? Are you rewarding her for any good behaviors? When Hollie is in tantrum or over excited any training will fall on deaf ears. The training has to be when she is under threshold. Some pups at first can only handle about a minute or less of play before they get over done. All those behaviors that will give Hollie good manners take lots of time to learn. It takes over 500 good repetitions of a behavior for them to learn. This can't be done in a few weeks but takes more time than that. Amazingly, they do learn inappropriate behaviors much faster as many of them are more instinctual to dogs. I have a feeling that Hollie has learned that if she bites you she gets to do what she wants or at least gets attention. For most pups any attention even bad attention is better than no attention. I would wear a short leash without a handle on her when she isn't in her crate so that you can stop her from getting to you to bite by gently stepping on the leash at a distance she can't get to you. At first this lack of freedom may bring on more tantrums but as she calms down give her more leash and ask her to give you a behavior you are working on. If she does give her tons of praise and reward her. If she doesn't it most likely is time for a nap or some down time. Timeouts aren't used as punishment but to calm her down or nap if she is over tired. Gently take that leash and guide her into her crate or safe space give her a kong or a bone to chew on and let her learn to entertain herself a little or take a nap. 
Most likely these tantrums happen more regularly at certain times a day. Start writing them down so you can see if there is a pattern. Oh and sometimes when they need to eliminate but their body hasn't gotten to that point they may also get a little testy as they are uncomfortable.
Another thing that may help you is to teach her bite inhibition. I would start hand feeding her a portion of each of her meals. I will look around to see if I can locate a video on this and post it later if I find it.

I am sorry you and the mrs are feeling discouraged and frustrated but believe me golden pups are rough for new owners.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

She's not being aggressive....she's just being a typical golden retriever mouthy playful puppy. Its not appropriate, but thats why goldens are called landsharks. When they are bored, or want to play, they will create their own fun and at that age it generally involves biting. Its very normal to have cuts and bruises and destroyed clothes. 

The pooping on the floor was assuredly not out of malice or retribution or disrespect. Dogs don't have those emotions. She just had to go outside. She may have been extra hyper and landsharky because she had to go outside though. 

She sounds like she's on the more confident/higher energy part of the puppy spectrum, with a tendency to get overexcited, based on this and other posts you posted. There's nothing wrong with that and its normal. She needs you guys to firmly and lovingly show her how to behave. But you can't be terrified of her and there's no reason to be. To some degree, if you run away from her and show fear, you she might not understand that yet, and you may be reinforcing this behavior. She'll remember reinforcement of a behavior much easier than learning a new one. 

Have a trainer come into your home (puppies are less likely to be on their best behavior at home) on a weekly basis, so they can observe the three of you together and help teach you how to train her. Sometimes new dog owners aren't prepared for the work and specific issues that come up with raising a large, highly active, mouthy breed like a Golden, and a trainer will help you learn how to set boundaries, get over fear, and communicate consistently and efficiently with her. 

Otherwise, redirect her with a toy--keep one on you at all times. Put it physically in her mouth to chew on instead, and start a game of fetch with her. A puppy has a 30 second attention span, so you might have to do this every 30 seconds. I promise, thats normal. You can also say OUCH loudly and firmly and stop interacting with her for 2-3 minutes, or pick her up and put her in her crate for a 5 minute time out (this is for you, as much as it is for her). If she's started to learn cues, like sits, you can also turn those into immediate training sessions...keep some treats or kibble handy so you can immediately reinforce a behavior you would rather see. 

If she releases from a bite, and then does it right away again, its an attention span thing and not knowing the boundaries. The fact that she releases is good, that shows that she cares. Its the beginning of bite inhibition. She doesn't realize how sharp her puppy teeth are...I promise. 

I don't personally advocate grabbing a muzzle--its antagonistic for one, teaches a more aggressive retaliation/behavior, could be misinterpreted as playing and lead to more biting (it looks like you are going towards her head in play). I don't think sticking a finger down the throat is kind personally. If your hand is in her mouth already and she's bitten down and isn't wanting to let go, I will try to make my hand into a fist, or larger in some way, and move it towards the back of her teeth line, to get a release. Usually I'll take my other hand, or both my hands if puppy has sharked onto something else, and stick my fingers in her mouth at the back of her gum line to get her to release and then redirect IMMEDIATELY, or pick up and put in crate for a time out. I don't personally use a spray bottle, but other people have had success with them. 

She sounds like she has too much energy. Is she getting exercise? It's a good time to start playing lots of games of fetch and build that retriever drive. She needs directed exercise that gets her panting and tired each day, so she doesn't start creating her own forms of entertainment.


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## LittleRedDawg (Oct 5, 2011)

Check your PMs.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

games to play to teach bite inhibition





 kikopup video





 using meal time


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## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

solinvictus said:


> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c77--cCHPyU games to play to teach bite inhibition
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjkkHsOKYPI kikopup video
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsRrW8Wm1xg using meal time




Thanks for sharing these. I'm going to try the last video exercise with Duke....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Piper_the_goldenpuppy said:


> She's not being aggressive....she's just being a typical golden retriever mouthy playful puppy. Its not appropriate, but thats why goldens are called landsharks. When they are bored, or want to play, they will create their own fun and at that age it generally involves biting. Its very normal to have cuts and bruises and destroyed clothes.
> 
> The pooping on the floor was assuredly not out of malice or retribution or disrespect. Dogs don't have those emotions. She just had to go outside. She may have been extra hyper and landsharky because she had to go outside though.
> 
> ...


^^ This basically says everything I would have said. Thanks!! :smile2:

I will repeat - don't grab her muzzle, don't act terrified, don't yell at her. She sounds like she is getting worked up - so that calls on you to be calm and patient, redirect, redirect, and when it gets too much, walk away. Put yourself on the other side of the x-pen or baby gate. Give both of you a breather. 

She does not know that what she is doing is not "good" behavior. You have to teach her how to be a good dog. Right now, she is playing the way she would with her puppy siblings. So, act like a puppy. When she bites too hard, give a high-pitched yelp, and stop playing and walk away. That's what a puppy would do. Re-direct her to a toy, and praise hugely. She is a very young baby and just needs to be taught. But it does take time - mouthing and biting will continue til she loses all her baby teeth and gets her adult teeth. Again, it's not aggression. It's normal puppy behavior. 

My first pup was super mouthy. I had bloody scratches all over my hands and arms. I taught her to always have a toy in her mouth when she wanted pats and love. So lots of redirecting. But it does take weeks and months.


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## gerryjane (Aug 12, 2016)

I have been reading this forum for some time but had difficulty in posting. 

We had the same experiences with our boy Monty. He is also very confident and makes his feelings known! Had it not been for reading the advice and threads here I think we might have given up and believed we had an aggressive dog. Monty would bite and snarl and moving him to time out was sometimes a painful experience! Things calmed down at about four and a half months but a puppy trainer warned us it was a lull and there might be more to come. That is proving to be the case as although he has improved in so many ways and shows so many good behaviours we are now, at six and a half months, seeing teenage temper tantrums which include more biting, jumping and snarling ..... But of course he is much bigger and stronger now. We are sticking to the "be a tree" advice and turning our backs and dropping the leash (if at home) which seems to work but is still hard when he has latched on. Interestingly, this behaviour sometimes means he wants to potty .... This has been the case since he was tiny. 
I just wanted to say how much I agree with the advice given, how much it helped me and how much hanging on in there is worthwhile. When Monty sits at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me I can't resist him! It will get better!


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Train her to do stuff. Train her to sit, lie down, stand, spin, take a bow, etc. Whenever she starts biting, start a training session - this will redirect her energy into something positive. Use a treat-based training method. To train a sit: lure her into a sitting position using a treat, then reward. Do this about 10 times. Then put a verbal command ("sit") on it. Repeat many times, combining the lure and the command, and reward each time. Then stop luring, and just give the verbal command. Repeat for all the other commands.

There's no need to be afraid of her. She's a tiny puppy - most of us have probably owned cats who are bigger than her. If she gets out of control, pick her up calmly and put her in her crate. If you don't have a crate, get one. Leave her there until she calms down.

My pup was an absolute crocodile when he came home. The thing that worked best for us was the training: it redirected his energy and tired him out mentally. We would do many short training sessions per day - just a few minutes at a time, maybe 10 times a day. By the time he was 12 weeks old, he was responding reliably to verbal commands, and if he started biting us, we simply had to say "sit", and he would stop biting and sit down. Every time he started biting, we went straight into a training session. Eventually we could tell when he was starting to get "over the top", and could initiate training before the biting started.

It sounds like you have an energetic, confident pup. She'll need consistency and exercise, both physical and mental, especially in the early months.

She's cornering you and growling because you're not doing anything to stop her. Pups are brats - they're like small children. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. You're the adults here: you get to decide what is and is not acceptable, not her. If you don't want her to grab your clothing, pick her up and put her in her crate every time she does it. If you don't want her to back you into corners and snarl, don't let her: pick her up and put her in the crate. If you don't want to pick her up, keep a leash or cord attached to her collar all the time in the house, and use that to control her. There's no reason to be afraid of her. She's a baby.

Once you have a consistent structure in place, she'll soon learn that biting and snarling mean loss of freedom. The worst thing you can do here is let her dictate what she wants to do. She had to learn to march to your tune, not vice-versa.

As for the peeing and pooping in the house, again, she's a baby. She has no control over her muscles yet. She'll become clean in the house at around 6 months of age.

Good luck!


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