# 15 week old golden Frustrated? Help!



## SniperNDstroy (Mar 16, 2016)

Hi I have a 15 week old golden retriever puppy. A little back story on this little guy. He came from a home roughly 15 minutes from me his dad and his mom when we got this was super loving dad and the mom was kinda more laid back until the two started playing. There were a total of 6 puppies 5 boys 1 girl and only mine and the girl was left. This little budderball was hiding behind the couch and when I got to hold him he wasn't fighting it or anything. We went to the market to pick up couple of items and he whined once about the sirens and hasn't since. Well now he's out of his shell and out of hand. He will happily do under, sit, down but after around 5 minutes of trying something different or seeing someone who isn't paying attention he barks a lot and bites. Which can I just say absolutely hurt with his grown up teeth growing in. I believe it's frustration of not getting his way. How do I stop this before it gets worse?


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## Tosh's Legacy (Oct 2, 2013)

He sounds like a typical Golden puppy!

There is a lot of excellent advice on this forum on the biting behavior and raising Golden puppies in general in the "Golden Retriever Puppies - up to 1 year" forum that you may find very useful, in particular "It's a Puppy, Not a Problem."


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## roonie (May 1, 2015)

Our little Murphy was a biting machine. He drew blood more than once with his needle sharp teeth. We just kept repeating "no bite", which he totally ignored for months, when he was biting. Around 5 or 6 months he slowly started to mouth more than bite. He is going on 10 months now he is really fine with the hard biting. Hang in there, he is a puppy and that's what they do. As far as barking, Murphy was a barker and driving us nuts. Our trainer gave us a can of Pet Corrector which is a can of compressed air. Murphy was barking at me and my wife gave one spray of the air, in another room, and it completely eliminated him barking. I was amazed. He did freak out a little at the hiss sound but it really worked. Might try it. Good luck. You will survive.


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## Pilgrim123 (Jul 26, 2014)

Puppies have a frustratingly short attention span and golden retrievers aren't known as land sharks for nothing. I was so grateful Pilgrim had an older friend to teach him bite control - if he bit a person, it was always my son who was nine. It does get better. Hang in there.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Welcome to the forum  What's your little monster's name? We'd love to see photos, I'm sure he's adorable. Keep working on obedience, on leash, every day. Do you all go on off leash nature walks? Work on recall on a long line? Keep getting him out and about as many days a week as you can. The less time he spends sleeping in his crate, the better. (obviously babies need nap time but keep getting him out, take lots of treats and get him meeting people and running errands with you etc.)

A great way of saving yourself is to NEVER sit on the floor and play with the puppy without a stuffed toy in your hands. When he goes at you with teeth tell him "eh-eh" in a gruff voice and then stuff that toy in his mouth and tell him in a happy voice, "here is what you play with"! Hang in there, it gets better if you try to be as consistent as possible.

At the top of the page is a "search" feature. It will bring up all the previous threads on any subject you enter with those words in the title or the thread. Trust me, you can't come up with something that hasn't already been covered here at some point. (plus it helps to know you're not the only one dealing with this and your puppy is totally normal, it's up to you to teach him that this isn't acceptable with people). My suggestions for your searches: "Landshark" "puppy biting" "help, my puppy is driving me crazy" etc. There are a lot of other strategies you can try such as teaching your puppy to 'kiss' your hand and handfeeding him all his meals etc. These things take time and are not overnight, immediate fixes - but they are part of the process of teaching your puppy to be a good family dog. Every minute you invest in him for the first couple years (yes, it's a lot of work) will be paid back to you with 10 years of love from an awesome Golden. Hang in there, you can do this


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

You are expecting too much from him at his age. His attention span is short, and his ability to learn is determined by his attention span. Keep training sessions really short, 5 minutes no more, a couple of times day.


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## Wenderwoman (Jan 7, 2013)

I agree will all of the above posts. He's young. They are called "land-sharks" for a reason. When they are older you will miss those fluff ball days and forget all about the bitey phase.

My top three suggestions; 

1) Make a whimper/yelping sound.; 
2) Walk away for a minute or two. They are trying to play and when they see they get the opposite reaction, they will be more interested in keeping play going.
3) Say "No bite" and put an appropriate toy in their mouth.

You can combine these all in the same correction, if you want.


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## Bandit's Mom (Mar 19, 2016)

This is my first post on the forum, though I've perused it from time to time. Still haven't posted a pic of my handsome red golden Bandit, now coming up on age three.

And, I fear this first post is going to make me very unpopular, but here goes.

When Bandit was a puppy I got many ideas from 'The Art of Raising a Puppy', by the Monks of New Skete, who raise German Shepherd Dogs to support their monastery in New York State. Some of their techniques were really complicated, especially their method for leash training - too much so for me to follow. 

But their method for biting was simple. Insert a finger down the puppy's throat to the point where the gag reflex is initiated. Arguably a cruel thing to do. The thing is, however, I did it exactly one time. No more biting or mouthing after that - it worked like a charm.

I'll add that Bandit is a dominant type of dog, and very headstrong. Positive reinforcement has not worked for all aspects of his training, particularly the heel command. I've had to incorporate classical training into working with him on the heel, and even after two years, that command is still a work in progress.


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## SniperNDstroy (Mar 16, 2016)

So my little guys name is Oliver but we call him Ollie he was named after Oliver & Company a disney movie so yes he was named after a cat. I've attached some photos from his life so far that are my favorite. In one of the photos he has blue on his forehead it's only chalk. It was because I couldn't find red while listening to the circle of life.


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## TiffanyGolden (Dec 6, 2015)

Are you giving him treats that *make* him pay attention to you?

With Nala I've learned she isn't fond of normal treats, they either have to be her kibble, chicken, or some sort of human food. I tried three types of treats and all were unsatisfactory for her. 

Are you calling his name and giving him a treat *every time* he looks towards you?

This will help with him paying attention to you because he sees it as, "wow, I get a treat every time!" And gives you good association.

Are you exercising him 10-15 minutes *before* training sessions?

It may be that Ollie just has too much energy to want to learn! I know my almost 6 month old male Golden would have too much energy or excitement to want to listen to me. If I'm around surroundings I know Nala and Duke will get excited about and not listen they are completely leashed up. 

About the biting, do you carry a toy with you?

When you see him about to bite put the toy in his mouth. Nala is getting better with biting because of this. I also use a low voice when she is biting and say "NO" so that she associates biting with a negative comment. This works because she doesn't like being told no. 

I hope this helps! These are things I've learned through having both a male and female puppy. He is only 15 weeks old! He'll get there, just be consistent and make sure others are being consistent with him as well.


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## Elsa Cholla's Mom (Feb 8, 2016)

Hello! I am raising a difficult pup as well. Her name is Elsa, she is named after the lion cub from Born free. She is a independent girl with a propensity for biting. That said, at 5 months, she is getting better. Training is slow too. I have been training her on things that fit her personality. She is very active and loves the outdoors. So she knows Up, for on logs and rocks. She will run back on a whistle about 90% of the time, and actually come up and sit if I have a treat. She will fetch just about anything in or out of water. She can ring bells for going out, but still wants to bite me to tell me she needs to go out and I have to remind her of the bells. One trick i got on here, is when she gets over excited, especially on walks, I use treats to get her to Sit, Down, Wait and hold before taking the treat. It helps her to focus and slow her puppy brain down. I have also been doing some clicker training, just focusing on Look at Me, and Here, where she has to come and touch her nose to my hand. 

For me, crating her for 5 min. when the biting gets really bad, settles her right away and it hasn't ruined her love for going crate. I think she knows it is for her own good.

Hang in there, everyone keeps telling me I am going to have a great dog in the end, so will you.


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