# My 3-month-old male Golden Retriever, Archie, is a piranha and a bossy rebellious teenager. Help!



## rayadhar (Mar 26, 2021)

We got Archie when he was 7.5-8ish weeks old from a good, reputed breeder. He was a darling the first few days, then things turned around. He's about 3 months old now. Here are the list of things Archie does around the house that has infuriated me. I need help, to fix these because my mind is going out of control. 

1. We have profusely tried to keep him outside the kitchen, but that is the first place he wants to go. We have tried to tell him a firm 'No', distract him, but nothing works. He will go back to the kitchen immediately after you tell him not to. Similarly, he does every single thing that we tell him not to, with even more determination. 

2. When we try giving him love, or petting him and stroking him, his first instinct is to open his mouth, bare his teeth and try to bite us. EVERY SINGLE TIME! We have tried to command him to not bite, to ignore him, to walk away, to put him in isolation, scream "aah", glare or look sad, but he lunges towards our face, hands, legs. It feels like he hates us, and wants to just bite us all the time. Couple of times he's tried to bit our nose while we are sleeping. We were wishing for lick and cuddles and we get scars and blood and scratches all over our bodies.

3. When we try to discipline him for something he shouldn't be doing, or if we don't let him do what he wants to do. He tries to jump on us, and nip on our bodies and keep barking, continuously. He gets aggressive and tries to bite us if we hold him from doing something. 

4. He barks at anyone new who comes to our house. We even wait for him to go to that person, smell them, and be okay. But he keeps barking and growling. He barks and growls at our gardener, at my mother's friends, our driver, at random people walking on the road, at any other dog he feels he can conquer. Literally at anyone who rings the doorbell for our house. Recently, he scared the crap out of a female lab who was at least a year old.

5. He doesn't seem to care about what he have to say, he doesn't seem to care to follow commands, we have been pee training him for 2 months, and he still pees outside the pee pad about 70 percent of the time. We point towards the pee pad, help him smell it. He does smell it, but walks away from it and pees on the floor. Today, he did something that I have never seen him do before. I let him go out in the morning from my room, walked with him to the pee corner, stayed with him till he pees, but he didn't. Instead, he walked over, jumped on our coffee table, squatted and started freaking peeing. I ran towards him picked him up from the table to run towards the pee pad, but he was peeing already, and I had to wipe my entire floor filled with spots of pee early today morning.

6. When we scold him, he doesn't give us a second look. He doesn't look at me when I'm scolding him. Instead he looks at other directions, avoiding his eyes from mine. 

7. He has been humping a lot, and gets aggressive when he tries to mount our legs and if we move away, or try ignoring him, he charges towards us and starts trying to take hold of our legs, while nipping at our thighs and calves. 


What am I doing wrong? I am so worried, frustrated as well as super exhausted. I just need some suggestions, advice, anything that can help me get this stubborn, hard-headed, rebellious land shark to calm down and be friendly, social and sweet. Please help!


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## Dunmar (Apr 15, 2020)

Get rid of the pee pads! Potty train him outside. 
He sounds like he needs a lot more exercise and socializing. 
Redirect the nipping. As annoying as it is, it is normal.
Consider having a trainer come to your house for some lessons


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## Mister F (Feb 6, 2021)

3 months ago I had never had a dog in the house. Now my family of 5 has a 4 month old puppy, got him late January. Before that, as a 'trial' we had a neighbor's dog (7 months) visit for a few nights. That dog had been paper-trained, which was gross. By the time I was done, she was sitting by the door to go out to pee. Metaphor -- a reputable breeder and good genes are like getting a house done with a permit and a good builder....it could still burn down or get messy, but its the best possible start. How you live in such a home is up to you.
Your dog needs to be on a schedule. Routine Routine Routine. Planned down-times in crate during the day, regular outside breaks where he only goes in one place.

Your dog absolutely doesnt care about any commands you give him. He doesn't know them, he hasnt been trained long enough... or at all yet. There are 3 controls you can implement on a dog: contain, restrain, and train. You have the first 2 right now. If he's misbehaving, its because those have not been done. Until he's trained, you have to contain and restrain!

There are TONS of good videos on potty training. Its a process. You need to get hooked up fast with a dog trainer you can ask questions of, by email at least. 

Our little guy Teddy is super chill, but he's still a puppy. There's chewing, some nipping, and an occasional accident still (and its usually our fault when we think back over what happened). A good dog acts that way because it has been trained to be. Ever see videos of drill instructors, like in the Marines, shouting a recruits and instructing them? That voice they use...they're not born with it, they're taught it in a school for drill instructors! Same with a good dog, their behaviors need to be taught.


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## Winnie’smom (Jul 16, 2020)

1 - 2 of 2 Posts

I'm sorry you are having so much trouble. I don't have have all the answers, but here are some quick tips to maybe help get a little control before you are able to work with a trainer etc.

1. It sounds like possibly your puppy has too much freedom as far as where he's allowed in your home. I would absolutely gate him off in a small area until he is understands house training. The last thing you want is him peeing etc. all over your space. This would look like- you take him out to go potty, if he doesn't go outside he stays in the gated off area (he should have toys, water, etc. in there), then take him out again in 30 minutes, when he does go outside, praise the heck out of him, play with him etc. The other advantage of this gated off space for us was that we would play with her in there, but once our puppy started nipping and getting nasty, we would stand up and walk out of the gate and turn our backs on her. Biting=play time is over and she couldn't be around us. 

2. I don't think your puppy is being mean, I think he's being a puppy, and that can feel very aggressive. You are in the throws of some really difficult puppy teething time etc. but this is also the perfect time to teach manners! Our puppy at this age would usually just bite and nip at us when we tried to sit down on the floor and cuddle with her. The second she started that behavior we would give a firm no sound, stand up, turn our backs and cross our arms. If she continued to push it, we would go away from her and she got zero attention. Same with barking, barking got her zero attention, we completely ignored it. By 5 months old, the biting etc. reduced by a ton, and by 6-7 months, it was completely over.

3. Find out what motivates your dog. For ours it was food. Treat desired behavior, if he comes up to you and sits on his own, treat! Did he see someone without barking? Treat. We did a ton of ignoring what we could, and treating good behavior. If we walked into a room and she ran up to us too excited, we ignored her until she sat, and then would give her attention.

4. Last thing, is that it IS a ton of work, and it is exhausting and super difficult when you are in the middle of the worst of it. You can do this!!


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## Mister F (Feb 6, 2021)

Winnie’smom said:


> 1 - 2 of 2 Posts
> 
> I'm sorry you are having so much trouble. I don't have have all the answers, but here are some quick tips to maybe help get a little control before you are able to work with a trainer etc.
> 
> ...


1. -that is our issue...when we have "accidents" its that the puppy has inadvertently been given too much freedom! Night time, he's in a crate. Outside last thing around 9:15 for a break, then in the crate. Walk him at 6am. At 3 months your fellow may need a mid-nighttime outside break, if you have to take them out make it minimally stimulating, no talking, except to praise the business done. The one thing that's solid in firmware is that a puppy wont soil its den, it will hold it. But if too much time goes by, or the den is big enough to use a distant corner, they will soil it. So a rightsized crate and keeping his schedule will get that moving in the right direction.

Also, this is the time to make sure your puppy is comfortable with you handling his paws, mouth, ears, tail, etc. Test for food aggression, and treat it properly. There are very effective ways to make that stop, and now is the best time. Our Teddy growled at me once with a bowl of food at 9 weeks. I got on that very promptly. We can reach in his mouth for anything at this point...and with the stuff he picks up all the time...we have to!

You're building something here, and its nearly every bit like having a baby human. And we've had twins....I'd rather have twins than two puppies actually.


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## I'm Elaine (Oct 27, 2020)

I'm sorry you are struggling so much with your puppy. Obviously, you did not properly prepare for how much work a puppy can be and now you are paying the price for not doing that. I wish you had come to the forum before you got him, so that you could get advice from some very experienced puppy raisers, so many of the folks on this forum could have prepared you for a much easier time for dealing with Archie. He is a puppy, and his behavior is quite normal for his age, he needs to be trained, not yelled at for doing stuff that he has no idea what is expected. I hope you can get some professional training (not so much for him, but for you) so that you will have the ability to teach him the things he needs to know to become the puppy you will fall in love with. He is so confused right now, and the way you are dealing with him is not helping him to understand what is expected. My puppy is now 10 weeks old and we are having the time of our lives with him and enjoying him every minute! I so hope that you will be able to enjoy Archie instead of resenting everything he does. If you can get some training, I bet by the time he is grown, he will become the love of your life. If that can't happen, maybe you should think about returning him to the breeder so that he can get what he needs to be what you wish he would. Best of luck to you!


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## shanburr (Feb 24, 2021)

Our guy is 11 weeks and we are having good luck with taking him outside every hour on the hour or 1hr from his last pee/pop outside, in the same location. There are still some accidents but occasional.

I work at 700 and wake at 5:15 (outside for pee!) and wake him from his crate beside me to go. Breakfast always at 5:30 because in 1 magic hour he poops outside! Then I head to work. And now it is my husbands turn to take over.

our pup will jump lunge and go at us like a Tasmanian devil if we sit on the floor, but a loud strong HUSH or SHHH or even a momma growl seems Most effective with our guy followed by a verbal command like OFF or NO and then reward with good boy and love. This is always short lived and then he goes nuts again lol it’s a process. We also give him little teddy bears and stuffy toys for dogs as replacements for our own limbs.

When our guys is well exercised he is laid back and chill. If he is outside while hubby Rakes leaves and such all day he is gentle and sweet in play as he is tired

when he has had his vaccinations I plan to take him to dog day care every other day for the day (it costs $20 here and includes training!). And I suspect pup will be tired the next day too


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