# Aggressive 3 month GR



## Goldenretrievermama0217 (Mar 12, 2020)

Is this your first golden retriever? What you are describing is not an aggressive dog he is a puppy and is playing and teething he doesn’t know any better.


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## Goldenretrievermama0217 (Mar 12, 2020)

Goldenretrievermama0217 said:


> Is this your first golden retriever? What you are describing is not an aggressive dog he is a puppy and is playing and teething he doesn’t know any better at this age.











Aggressive Puppy


Hi! We have a 13 week old golden retriever puppy, and we’re starting to get concerned about how aggressive she can be. I’ve read a lot of posts about retriever puppies being like ‘land sharks’ and using their mouths a lot, but this seems to be more than playful biting. Her teeth are incredibly...




www.goldenretrieverforum.com





I would read some of the comments on this thread on how to correct some of the behaviors.


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## Shiner (Jan 3, 2022)

Can you show us a video? I agree that it could be typical puppy behavior but drawing me has me a little concern.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

I'm curious on the black spot phenomenon- post a right side view!

Puppies can be perfectly awful. I find closing their mouths and saying EH EH harshly, then offering the arm or whatever again, repeating, til pup doesn't take the arm or whatever... if it takes 5X first time, it should take only 3-4 the next time pup puts teeth on you. By the third time you go thru the process, puppy should be much gentler and not take more than one correction before stopping. Then it's just a matter of repeating same the next week when it happens, etc.


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

When Rukie was a puppy we all bled a little but now he is your typical gentle Golden Retriever. It can seem like an attack but it is how they play with litter mates. Those teeth are like needles. It takes training and time to stop it. There are hundreds of post on puppy biting/aggressive puppy here so its most likely a normal thing. Giving him lots of running around exercise too can help.


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## Izzy C. (9 mo ago)

Goldenretrievermama0217 said:


> Aggressive Puppy
> 
> 
> Hi! We have a 13 week old golden retriever puppy, and we’re starting to get concerned about how aggressive she can be. I’ve read a lot of posts about retriever puppies being like ‘land sharks’ and using their mouths a lot, but this seems to be more than playful biting. Her teeth are incredibly...
> ...


Thank you so much! I'll be sure to read through this post.


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## Izzy C. (9 mo ago)

Goldenretrievermama0217 said:


> Is this your first golden retriever? What you are describing is not an aggressive dog he is a puppy and is playing and teething he doesn’t know any better.





Goldenretrievermama0217 said:


> Is this your first golden retriever? What you are describing is not an aggressive dog he is a puppy and is playing and teething he doesn’t know any better.


Yes, he is my first golden baby.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Izzy C. said:


> Yes, he is my first golden baby.


If you would like to tell us what city you live in we can try to help get you some suggestions on training. If you have never owned a Golden puppy before, it can be baptism by fire. They are a full time project if you do it the right way. Not easy in a household with young children especially. 

My suggestions: have a crate in your kitchen for daytime and a crate in your bedroom for night time. Use baby gates and a wire exercise pen (36" high) to limit your puppy to a small area. I use my kitchen because that's where my family is generally located and it's easy to pick up all the throw rugs to minimize potty training accidents. Rules for puppy is an adult must be supervising directly at all times so that you know what has happened and can keep things with children safe and under control. You will discover that your puppy can be a LOT like a toddler. If he gets too tired, he gets bitey. Keep track of his patterns of naughty behavior (use and old fashioned notebook and pen on the counter) and then you can try to head off the 'witching hour' by exercising him ahead of that time and then crating with a chewy. If he doesn't get enough romping outdoors in freshair and sunshine (at least twice a day for 15-20 minutes at this age) you will pay for it because he will struggle with self control. As he gets older, he will require more aerobic exercise, off leash and exploring. Be sure you stick to a schedule, puppies thrive on routine and consistent management, just like children. Put him in his crate with an appropriate chew item at regular intervals during the day and allow him to get naps. Treat the crate like a playpen, if you can't watch him because you're busy with chores, that's fine but he needs to be in a safe place where he can't get into mischief. Crate time. Use stuffed, frozen kongs and raw beef shank cross sections from the butcher or a benebone for special crate time. Use the search feature at the top of the page to look for suggestion for teething puppies. A picklepocket toy is also excellent. They need the outlet of chewing. 

As mentioned, it takes time, consistent, repeated corrections to teach a puppy anything. Even a smart puppy like a golden. But the more consistent you are, the quicker he will catch on to the rules. No teeth on human skin, EVER. 

If you really want a great family dog, I strongly believe in being enrolled in weekly group obedience classes for the first two years of a dog's life. Those amazing family dogs don't come that way, it's because someone invested a lot of time and energy into the dog on a daily basis. Worth every minute of effort, but definitely a project. Best of luck, you can do this.


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## Izzy C. (9 mo ago)

Goldenretrievermama0217 said:


> Is this your first golden retriever? What you are describing is not an aggressive dog he is a puppy and is playing and teething he doesn’t know any better.





Prism Goldens said:


> I'm curious on the black spot phenomenon- post a right side view!
> 
> Puppies can be perfectly awful. I find closing their mouths and saying EH EH harshly, then offering the arm or whatever again, repeating, til pup doesn't take the arm or whatever... if it takes 5X first time, it should take only 3-4 the next time pup puts teeth on you. By the third time you go thru the process, puppy should be much gentler and not take more than one correction before stopping. Then it's just a matter of repeating same the next week when it happens, etc.


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## Izzy C. (9 mo ago)




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## Izzy C. (9 mo ago)

Prism Goldens said:


> I'm curious on the black spot phenomenon- post a right side view!
> 
> Puppies can be perfectly awful. I find closing their mouths and saying EH EH harshly, then offering the arm or whatever again, repeating, til pup doesn't take the arm or whatever... if it takes 5X first time, it should take only 3-4 the next time pup puts teeth on you. By the third time you go thru the process, puppy should be much gentler and not take more than one correction before stopping. Then it's just a matter of repeating same the next week when it happens, etc.


He has a black furry paw.


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## Hildae (Aug 15, 2012)

Retrievers, by virtue of their breeding are mouthy, mouthy dogs. They are driven to put things in their mouth. As puppies this can cause a lot of problems as they'll bite and chew anything and swallow socks and underwear from the floor and get obstructions etc. They're very intense puppies to raise.


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## Goldenretrievermama0217 (Mar 12, 2020)

Izzy C. said:


> Yes, he is my first golden baby.


As others have said it takes time to work with them to correct this behavior. I can see why you see it as aggression because trust me at times it looks like that it it is them playing. I’ve had 3 Golden’s myself, and my sister 2. My sister has a 5 month old one now, but from 10 weeks up until like 15 weeks while she was working with him he would jump at us, bite draw blood, when you would gently hold him down so he would drop he would make growling noises and didn’t want to take no for an answer. Now he is a bit older he still has that puppy behavior but it also helps she has a 2 year old golden so they can play together and then mine who is 7 when we bring him down.

she has a little mental wire dog pen in the living room that when he’d get like that he’d have to go in there and rest. She also got kong Bones for him, she’d fill them with sardines and put them in the freezer for him.

Golden puppies are a lot of work but they are amazing dogs when they grow up.


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## Ffcmm (May 4, 2016)

Izzy C. said:


> He has a black furry paw.
> View attachment 891507


It’s cute he looks like he stepped in ink haha


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## ATXBogart (9 mo ago)

I have a puppy (Tyson) around the same age and all this sounds familiar. You already have lots of great advice, I'll just add 3 learnings that have helped me.

1. Avoid the natural desire to constnntly hold, touch and cuddle puppies at this age. You want to avoid creating situations where they can get their mouth on you. After awhile, I finally learned to stop sitting on the floor with him, randomly petting him etc. I forced myself to ignore him for stretches of time through the day unless he showed me he needed something. In the last couple days, he's showing me he can handle more affection without nipping at me which is more fun. 

2. When you do get close to him, have a toy ready for his mouth. I think a variety of toys is best. Soft, squeaky, hard, cloth, nylon etc. etc. Tyson loves hard plastic -- I've bought a million toys but his favorite thing to chew right now is the lid of Skippy Peanut Butter Jar. 

3. I moved furniture in my apartment so I could create a 30-40 foot long open stretch where we play fetch. If you can do this, I highly recommend it. Just stand at one end and keep tossing toys and don't stop until he tires out. No preparation needed, he gets exercise, chews lots of toys and you're able to maintain distance from those teeth.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

As everyone has said, he's in the land shark phase. Many prior threads. You will get through it. 

The black blotches are most likely a common somatic mutation that is fairly common in yellow labs and golden retrievers. Google "somatic mutation is yellow labrador and golden retriever." Lots of web sites. For example:








The black spot phenomenon attacks


(Source for the image) This dog has the black spot phenomenon on his face. The black spot phenomenon happens in golden and yellow Labrador retrievers when dog experiences a somatic mutation that t…




retrieverman.wordpress.com




In the 2019, there was a yellow lab, Watermark's Mystery ("Mystic") in the National Retriever Competition with a big black blotch:





2019 NRC


Blog coverage of the 2019 National Open Championship!




2019nrc.blogspot.com




The black spots are not a genetic mutation and are not inherited.


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## sevans (Jul 18, 2021)

PalouseDogs said:


> As everyone has said, he's in the land shark phase. Many prior threads. You will get through it.
> 
> The black blotches are most likely a common somatic mutation that is fairly common in yellow labs and golden retrievers. Google "somatic mutation is yellow labrador and golden retriever." Lots of web sites. For example:
> 
> ...


Our pup also has a tiny black spot but I have to wonder- since it is not inherited why is it a serious fault in breed conformation?


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

I doubt that many of the judges would recognize a somatic mutation.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

typically those tiny spots are not noticeable- 
it is not heritable, stems from a mutation when the embryo's cells are dividing and all the cells that descend from that mutated one will be black, which is why there is usually a cascading of color and you can clearly see the way the cells developed from that mutation.
the puppy in this thread is unusual in that usually they start @ the midline because mutations usually happen early on. This puppy's mutation appears to have happened later in skin/hair development. 
A somatic mutation differs from other mutations in that it is an alteration that only passes in the course of cell division and does not affect sex cells (which are the cells that are sperm/egg)


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

Prism Goldens said:


> I'm curious on the black spot phenomenon- post a right side view!
> 
> Puppies can be perfectly awful. I find closing their mouths and saying EH EH harshly, then offering the arm or whatever again, repeating, til pup doesn't take the arm or whatever... if it takes 5X first time, it should take only 3-4 the next time pup puts teeth on you. By the third time you go thru the process, puppy should be much gentler and not take more than one correction before stopping. Then it's just a matter of repeating same the next week when it happens, etc.


The EHH EHHH is my favorite verbal cue lol. I always said "ehhh ehh EASY" and mine still know that when I say "ehhh ehhh" they should probably stop whatever it is they're doing.


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## FurdogDad (Mar 30, 2021)

Taz Monkey said:


> The EHH EHHH is my favorite verbal cue lol. I always said "ehhh ehh EASY" and mine still know that when I say "ehhh ehhh" they should probably stop whatever it is they're doing.


My wife uses that too.....and I always immediately stop what I'm doing!


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## Atlasdog (Sep 30, 2020)

My dog was the same. It was terrible- like really terrible. Now he’s mostly an angel baby. He doesn’t mouth anyone except me and that’s only if he can’t find a toy. He doesn’t chew my arm he just wants to hold onto my arm without any pressure. I can remove it etc. he knows it’s unacceptable to do to anyone else as I was the only one who played rough with him until I learned not to. I could get him to stop but I don’t mind it. The things that worked for us when my pup was in attack mode was to close his mouth shut and growl no. I leave it closed until he’s uncomfortable. Many times we would crate if he got too excited. I’ll look and see if I can find my post about it where I was freaking out. Supposedly golden puppies are all land sharks. It really stinks!! But you’ll get through it and your baby will be the best!!


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## Atlasdog (Sep 30, 2020)

Biting, mounting issues


My puppy sleeps in a crate & I don’t let him up on furniture. I’ve been holding him on his back and he bears his teeth and growls and barks. Once he relaxes I hold him a bit longer but as soon as I let up he bears his teeth & attacks. Sometimes he’s good but all of a sudden he will decide he...




www.goldenretrieverforum.com


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