# 11 Month Old Puppy Jumping and Biting us on Walks



## Lucy222 (Aug 15, 2016)

Hi there,
Welcome to the forum!
I think if you do a quick search through some of the threads on here you will find that what you're experiencing is actually fairly common in our young goldens.
I have an 8 month old who has these tantrums as well, she has since she was very young, and for the longest time was completed baffled at how my normally sweet girl could turn on me in an instant!
With a lot of advice from other members on the forum I've been able to better understand what's happening when Lucy does this and use this knowledge to help stop this less than pleasant behaviour.

From my understanding, Lucy, like many golden puppies, LOVES meeting people and dogs and exploring new things. So when a leash pulls her away from something she gets very frustrated with the whole situation. They also often have a lot of pent up energy and when attached to a leash they can't do anything with it! I've definitely noticed when Lucy doesn't get enough time to run around and be a puppy, the crazy jumpy-bitey spells become much more frequent and intense. So my first bit of advice is exercise!!

With that in mind, telling Lucy "no" or tightening up on the leash in an attempt to regain control during a tantrum just makes things way worse. Think if she's frustrated already, making her more frustrated with things isn't going to help!
For some people, standing like a tree and ignoring their puppy works, but for me I've found that I need to actively re-route her mind. I know you said treats don't work, but try something really high value like cheese string. Lucy is similar and if I stand with a treat in my hand telling her to sit, she just continues jumping and biting and being a brat. I have to put the treat right in front of her nose and lure her into a sit position (normally she'll sit perfectly on command, but during these tantrums I need to use extra measures, like she's never been taught to sit before). Once she sits, she gets the treat. Then I'll ask her something else that's easy for her like "shake" a paw. Then treat. Then I might try to walk a few steps using the treat as a lure. If she walks nicely, she gets the treat. Then sit, and treat. Usually a minute or so of this and she's completely forgotten about the tantrum. 

Don't get me wrong, it's still a work in progress but using this method and trying to keep her happy instead of fighting with her seems to be the only thing that works. It's been getting easier with this method, the tantrums are less frequent and when they do happen I'm able to work through it with her much more quickly!


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## wdadswell (Dec 17, 2015)

My year old, has always walked nicely in an Easy Walk harness until recently. He has become a dragger, that won't listen. I found, putting a halti on him was a game changer! You have control of the head, so jumping, scratching and biting, should be minimized. I've had dogs in the past, that just want to rub it off their face and roll around on the ground, so this time, I had a chicken strip in a ziplock in my pocket. They have to focus on you, as they have no choice. I would give him a tiny piece, for the behaviour I wanted and in 10 minutes, Bodie was walking, loose leash and focused on me. It works like a charm! They are such smart dogs and catch on quickly.


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## HDub55 (Nov 5, 2016)

My 11 month year old golden, Panzer, has been doing the same thing for about a month now. He is very friendly with dogs and especially friendly towards other people. We live in an apartment so I have to leash him when I take him potty. 

He's fine when I initially take him outside. He starts throwing his tantrums when he either is done doing his business (even if there are no other animals or any other stimulation around), when there are other dogs he wants to play with and can't play with, or when he wants to chase a squirrel or bunny and can't chase after them. The odd thing is that he stops the very second we are by the door to go inside. I think he's mostly frustrated with his leash and wants to run around. He starts biting on the leash, growling, and will bite and scratch at me if I get to close to him.

We are fortunate to have a small fenced in area at our apartment, so I've been taking him there more to run versus just taking him on a walk. I agree with the first reply, exercise can really work!!! Since I have been letting him run more he will still throw tantrums every once in a while, not nearly as often as he used to. If he begins to start throwing tantrums I make him sit for awhile to calm him down, and he usually doesn't throw a tantrum if we are going on a walk vs just going potty. Good luck and I hope you can find a solution! And thank you for this post, I thought I was alone in this!


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## robin09 (Nov 2, 2016)

Thank you all for the advice! I might have to try the lure and treat method. Last night he had a tantrum out of nowhere on our walk, and it took us a good 5-7 minutes to calm him down. He now knows to sit when i pull out the treat, but after he gets it, he is back to jumping and biting again. We have gone about a week without one so we thought we were making progress. I guess we just have to keep at it! I am sure we will get there


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

You've received some good suggestions. But there is a missing piece of the puzzle.... I suspect the weather is cooling off (it makes them all a bit friskier) and your dog is not getting enough aerobic exercise. At this age (a teenager hitting his physical prime) a sporting breed dog like a Golden Retriever needs to have exercise that gets his heart rate up and leaves him panting pretty much every day of the week. 20 or 30 minutes of hard work - not just leash walks in the neighborhood.

If you will mark your calendar and make sure he is getting exercise *consistently for about two weeks *while you work on being stricter with him, Lure with food if you must, step on the leash so he self corrects when he jumps, simply don't let him get away with acting like a fool - and I guarantee you will see improvement. In addition begin working on impulse control exercises with him. Do a google search for "kikopup video impulse control" and see what you find, it's worth the effort.

Some suggestions if you need them:

Swimming

Teach a formal fetch / field work, retrieving where he returns to sit at your side and give you the ball, waiting in a sit for you to throw it and then release him to run after it.

Off leash hikes in a safe location

30 feet of nylon cord and working on sit/stay & recalls in a church yard or school playground

Beginning agility class at a dog training club

Puppy play dates with another nice young dog similar in size - about 20 minutes 2 or 3 times a week is a HUGE help


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## robin09 (Nov 2, 2016)

nolefan I think you hit the nail on the head. We have started to try these techniques to see if they help. Thank you so much!


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

I have a couple of suggestions.

First, if it's the fact of greeting people/dogs and then moving away that is triggering the tantrums, I would suggest stopping the greetings for the time being. Don't let him approach people or dogs. Just keep walking past them, and explain that your dog is in training and can't say "hi" right now.

Second, I'm not a big fan of the "no" command. It's too general, is something you use in your non-dog-related life, and it doesn't mean anything to the dog. I'd suggest using a verbal cue that you only use to tell the dog he's doing something you don't like. I use "ah-ah". The important thing here is always to follow up "ah-ah" with a command that the dog understands. For example, if he jumps on people: "ah-ah, sit". If he brings something undesirable into the house (sticks, leaves): "ah-ah, drop it". If he gets on the couch when you don't want him to: "ah-ah, down". If you just say "no" in these circumstances, the dog doesn't understand what you mean, or what you want him to do. With the verbal cue, the dog immediately knows you don't like what he's doing, and the command tells him what you want him to do instead. I've used this system with my dogs for 25+ years and it works well.

Third, if you want your dog to follow you willingly away from the people he's greeted, you have to make yourself more fun than them. I have a friend who's in the process of training a new agility dog. A few months ago they were competing at a facility normally used for horses - so lots of interesting smells. In one of the events, his dog ran off course to a corner of the ring and started sniffing around, ignoring all commands. My friend was philosophical: "Oh, well," he said, "at least I know what I have to do next: I have to make myself more interesting than horse poop." IMHO this kind of sums up the whole philosophy of dog training: you have to be more interesting than whatever the dog wants to do. Telling him "no" in a loud voice, ignoring him and so on simply means you're a lot less fun than what he was just doing. Find something he likes: very high value treats (cheese, chicken, any people food), or a toy (tug, ball, whatever), and make a game out of the fact that you're moving away. Once he's learned to walk away from people and dogs willingly, you can introduce training: teach him a "watch me" or "heel" command, so you can get his attention, and reward it generously. It probably seems impossible right now, but if you work on this at home and then gradually introduce it while you're out and about, it really will work. I have an energetic, friendly dog that's exactly the same age as yours, and when I give him the "heel" command, regardless of what he's doing, he now springs to my side and waits for the handful of cheese that will come his way.

For the time being, if you stop the greetings, you'll need to give him something to do that he likes better. Never go anywhere without a pocket full of high-value treats or his favourite toy. When you see a person or dog on the horizon, get his attention, do fun stuff, feed him, but keep walking past. When he starts following you willingly, throw a party!

Best of luck with this. It's a difficult problem and I hope you're able to find a solution that works.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Some good advice above. Training and exercise are needed.


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## robin09 (Nov 2, 2016)

Thank you all for the great suggestions! Since I posted this, the issue has progressed a bit. We have been following some of the advice given (vigorous playing before the walks, running through commands after greeting a person or another dog, etc) but we are finding more now that nothing triggers these attacks. We will be just walking along and then all of a sudden we have a very jumpy and biting dog! Just tonight, my fiancé was walking Zeus and he said he got "mauled" worse than ever before. Multiple bites on his arms and hands, totally unable to call him off with treats or commands. It seems like once he gets going, unless something else distracts him, he is hard to stop. This doesn't happen as often when the two of us walk him, since the other person can distract with commands and treats. 

Do we need to take him for more training? We are trying our best at home to make him sit and be still before he gets any attention, running through commands at random times to keep him sharp. Just when it seems things are going good, he starts acting up again worse than before. I know we must be missing some key aspect in training, or doing something off, but I can't figure it out.


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## aesthetic (Apr 23, 2015)

What kind of exercise does he get? I think he's not getting enough exercise, and that's why he's so wild on walks. For a growing retriever, walks really aren't enough at all. Take him swimming if you have a place near you, or teach him a formal retrieve. Hard exercise that leaves him panting will do far more for you than a walk will. I personally use a combination of a flirt pole (my boy loves his and runs hard after it for a solid 15 minutes at a time) and recall exercise. 

I recommend lots of mental exercise too, I think that is a lot more tiring than physical exercise. Teach him as many new things as you can think of - teach him a formal heel, to 'hold' an object, to get something for you. These dogs are crazy smart (Kaizer learned to walk backwards from free-shaping in two sessions) and in Kaizer's case, he tends to get crazy if he doesn't have a proper outlet for all that intelligence.


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## Aislinn (Nov 13, 2010)

Have you tried using a toy to redirect him? With a toy in his mouth he will be unable to be biting at you. Instead of treats which don't appear to be working with this, I would try a toy.


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## nganakis (Nov 12, 2015)

My dog has been doing this since he was a puppy and is now 16 months and still doing it. I do find he does it a lot more when he hasn't had enough exercise and by enough I mean multiple hours. I find re direction really helps and lots of cheese sticks! A trainer told me that in order to get them to stop, you have to do something to match the amount of energy of the tantrum to re direct such as throwing a ball etc. simply asking them for a sit often doesn't work for me. Good luck! I know how frustrating it can be.


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