# 10-months-old - Nipping A Lot - Need New Suggestions



## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

My 10-month-old Golden, JJ, is quite the biter/nipper. It’s a habit we’re having a hard time trying to break and could use any and all suggestions.

Let me start off by saying that JJ does get a good amount of daily exercise. He goes for roughly a 1.5-2 mile walk every afternoon with our dog walker and runs around outside in the yard on several occasions until he collapses during the evening. If the weather is nice, I’ll usually take him for another walk when I get home from work, on top of play time in the yard. So I don’t know if this is “worked up energy” or what.

He goes through these phases where he just turns into a monster and won’t stop jumping and nipping at me, my girlfriend or my family.

He could be calm as can be, laying on the couch next to you chewing his bone, and then it’s like all of a sudden, he’s had enough and he decides he wants to chew you hand instead, and when you tell him “no”, he gets wilder, and could care less if you tell him to “sit, stay”. 

Or, he could be passed out on the floor of the dining room after a long walk, and somebody, such as my girlfriend, walks in and he just goes nuts, jumping and nipping as if he’s saying “Look at me!! Look at me!!”.

It doesn’t happen all the time either. The situations I mentioned come and go. Sometimes you can sit on the couch by him for hours and he’ll just get up, move away and go do something else (like countersurf). Other times he could be passed out and care less who walks in the door, whether it be somebody he knows or somebody trying to rob the place. 

His nipping and jumping is worse when you take something away from him that he’s not suppose to have. For example, say he gets a wash cloth out of the kitchen sink and you take it from him or have him “drop it” for a treat. Once you take it and once he eats that treat, he’s jumping for the object in your hand, and if you don’t have it anymore of it he can’t get it, he’ll start jumping on you and nipping at your hands and legs and pulling your clothes.

I tell myself he’s got ADD cause it’s like he knows what he’s suppose to do and how to behave, it’s just getting him to do it for longer than 2 seconds. I say he knows what he’s doing cause he does it, it just doesn’t last. If he catches eyes with somebody during our walk through town and he knows they’re going to give him attention, his butt is on planted on the ground before I can even tell him to sit. But as soon as that person reaches out to pet him, his front legs are up and his mouth is open. If he can nip them in the wrist just once, he’s happy and he’ll sit there for as long as I need him to. I warn strangers that he needs work on his “hellos”.

I have noticed a lot of improvement with him jumping and nipping when I have him on the leash and we’re out and about. In the home, without a leash, no improvement whatsoever. I've tried leaving a leash on him while in the house, but he chews it and won't "leave it".

I’ve tried everything that’s been suggested to me, short of putting a muzzle of him and giving him a good wack with a newspaper (I can’t hit an animal without being in serious danger). 

Our vet told us to shove our fingers down his throat whenever he bites. Not hard, but far enough down to where he starts to gag them up. It works, it gets him to stop and start kissing your hands, but it only lasts about 30seconds. By the 4th kiss, it’s all teeth. 

Several trainers have suggested ignoring him by standing up and crossing our arms, turning our back, or walking away. We’ve done all of those and the problem is, whenever we stand up and cross our arms and try to ignore him, he’ll continue to jump, pull clothes and nip/bite you in the hip, legs and feet. If you turn your back, he’ll just jump and nip you in the ass or pull your shirt or nip you in the back of the leg. If you get up and try and walk away, he’ll run after you and jump at you, nipping you in the ass.

“No” and “Stop” mean nothing to him. He knows how to “Sit”, “Stay” and etc, but when he gets in these moods, getting him to do such is nearly impossible, even with high value treats.

We’re working on “time outs” now and putting him in his crate when he gets wild (read: by the third time we have to say “no”), but after about a month I’ve seeing no improvement and noticing somewhat of another problem arousing from it. He’s not fearful of you touching his neck/collar at all and you can do so all day long. He actually loves getting the front of his neck rubbed. But when he gets in these moods and starts jumping and nipping, he’s knows what’s coming (he’s too **** smart), so whenever you reach out to grab his collar to put him in his crate for a time down, he’ll duck/crouch down, curl his lip and basically leap at your hand, body or feet. There’s a growl once in awhile too (which appears to be more of a playful growl). I don’t like that and hate the fact that I have to physically grab my dog by the collar and put him in his crate, fearing that one day he’s going to be scared of me, or anybody else for that matter reaching towards him. 

He’s never nipped any of us hard enough to draw blood, but there’s been quite a few times where we’ve been left with some nice tooth impressions. 

I need any and all suggestions to break this habit ASAP. Please, throw whatever you got at me.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

Our Penny is also very exciteable...she can go from zero to a 10 just by opening her eyes! So I completely understand exactly what you're going thru.

You mention trainers. Have you gone to obedience classes? The kind where you go once a week for several weeks. These classes are invaluable for learning about your dog, how he learns, how he likes to be taught and how to get his attention. Nothing you do will work if you don't have his attention. So my first recommendation is to get started with classes ASAP.

You need to hook up his 'off' switch. I use the command "THAT'S ENOUGH" and then I follow up by crating until the excitement subsides. I had to do that because when I pointed my finger at her and said NO, she bit my finger. :uhoh: She was so out of control that crating was the only thing that worked.

I did have to be firm with my voice, use it with authority...not yelling, not raising the pitch and not sounding panicky...just firmly say "THAT'S ENOUGH". Eventually he will get the message. But it has to go hand in hand with basic obedience. Our Penny did so well with obedience classes that we went thru 4 progressive classes over 2 years.

She still gets excited, leaps and twirls in circles biting at our feet (her thing) and grabbing at mittens, etc. but now she has a 'off' switch.

Our Penny turned 10 on January 3. She still has several excited, wild times per week and still gets the zoomies on a regular basis! What a treat she is!


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

I would keep a 2 ft leash on him in the house. When you need to put him in his crate use the leash instead of grabbing his collar. You always want to set yourself up for success. If you can't guarantee you can follow thru on your action or command, then don't start it until you can. 

With his history, he gets ONE 'no', then it's take the leash and put him in his time out. It's okay for him to have toys or a kong during his time out. It isn't punishment.


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## baumgartml16 (Jun 19, 2011)

We went through something like this, not as random. Her's was more linked to play time but the same behaviour nonetheless. We used a spray bottle with just water and sprayed her when she started the jumping/biting. This stopped her immediately. Now we don't even spray her, just grab the bottle or have the bottle in the room.

But don't raise your voice at him or get shrieky like the above post said. That only gets him going more...pointing the finger...my husband used to do that and it just riled her up more. Be calm. We fold our arms across our chest, turn our backs to her and give her a firm NO but not yelling at her. It has worked so far. She still gets frustrated and that is when the chasing the tail happens but that I can deal with.


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestions.

When he gets to crazy and I have to put him in his crate, I tell him "That's Enough" in a somewhat firm voice, followed by "Time Out". He usually has no problem going in for a timeout. He'll trot right in there once you have him by the collar and will either sit or lay there and calmly wait until you let him out, without a peep. My goal is that someday I'll be able to simply say "That's Enough" and he'll know that if he doesn't stop, it'll be followed up by a "Time Out".

@Penny - We have been to obedience classes, and I've continued to follow-up on what we've learned in class by working with him at home. Aside from wanting to go play with all the other dogs in class, he did well and picked up on a lot. He's extremely smart and knows what to do, it's just a matter of getting him to do it when he's in these moods. He looses focus all together. I've even been working on the nose-to-hand thing with him, which works great when he's in his clam moods, but once he turns into a monster, he ignores everything he knows.

He reminds me of myself when I was a teenager. He knows what not to do, but the thrill of doing it is worth the trouble.

You mentioned a 2ft leash. I don't know if you saw me mention it, but he'll eat the leash. I can't even leave tags on him that hang cause they'll be in his mouth. This dog is an animal, haha.

I understand what you're saying about wanting to set yourself up for success. When he gets in his moods, I've learned to just stand there and not make a move until I know I can grab him and put him in his crate and he won't be able to run off. I usually wait until he jumps on me cause his collar is right there to grab.

@baumgartml16 - We've been using the spray bottle on and off, and it's worked. The problem is remembering to carrying it with us or leave it somewhere where its easy to grab. For example, if he gets in his mood in one of the bedrooms and the spray bottle is in the living room, its a project trying to make it out to the living room to get it.

I have a habit of pointing my finger, which I know isn't good. I've been trying to avoid doing so but it's just so hard :doh:


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

I have to laugh at the spray bottle thing. I had them all over the house! PLUS, I hooked the trigger part of the spray bottle on my pocket. I didn't even go to the bathroom without it! lol Also, had bowls of Cheerios so I could reward good behavior unexpectedly. 

Sounds like you're doing everything you can and sound sensible to me. It took Penny several years (sorry ) to become a good housemate. She used to run up behind me and body slam me at the back of my knees, putting me on the ground before I knew what hit me! Then she'd come around to my head and start 'playing' with it. I truly know what you're going thru!!!

We kept asking people "when do they calm down?" First they said at one year. That came and went with very little improvement. Then they started saying at 2 years. Then 3. Then 4. Sometimes between 3 and 4, she changed from being a 'monster' to being a goofy, funny, energetic and happy Golden. And we got used to her! lol She was always a loyal, loving and gentle Golden, much like yours. She just went nuts from time to time. Like from 3 p.m. until 8 pm SOLID, EVERY DAY for almost 2 years. Now it's 7:30 to 8 EVERY NIGHT...stealing towels, socks, shoes. Her latest is to put the side of her face against the laptop screen and shove it off my lap. That means I'm supposed to sit on the sofa with her!

I wouldn't want her any other way now, but I did threaten her with 'rescue' almost every day.

Hang in there, I think you're doing a great job!


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

Even though he's a monster, I wouldn't trade him for the world. He keeps me on my toes, and entertained from time to time. He's MY monster 

He just happens to love people, and gets extremely excited around them. I suppose it doesn't help either that he's able to jump all over my dog walkers since I'm not there to control him when they let him out of his crate. When we take him to the dog park, we find him sitting on a bench getting rubs from a stranger. He could care less that there's 20 other dogs there running around :bowl:


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

He's such a sweetie. Penny has never paid that much attention to adults but she LOVES kids. And surprisingly, she's always been very careful with them; never did to them what she does to us! lol

I wouldn't trade her for all the world either! You'll get thru this, day by day and one day you'll realized that he hasn't done these things for a day, then a week, then a month. And finally you'll be like us: glad to see the puppy inside the old dog!

Give him a hug from me...but don't get him excited!


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

I am a fan of minty breath spray...one spray in the mouth or nose interrupts the behavior, dogs hate it. It was something my kids could use when they were younger and the dogs were relentless. The other thing is "tethering" for a time out. My OTCH trainer friend is a fan do putting "screw eyes in her walls, to tether a dog. I use a banister and tether the dog to it when it is crazy... Then you approach and if the dog is rowdy, you say something like too bad and walk away. If the dog is good, you reward it... The other thing she is big on is self control... Teaching the dog to do sit stays and down stays....


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

I thought about putting hooks in the wall, not to tether him to but to try and tie toys to, to see if he'd tug on them and keep himself occupied. I live in an old house though, and I fear he'd rip the walls down haha


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

We also have an overexcited pup.
I've just begun trying, after getting her rev'ed up, to get her in a "settle"
I'm going to try this technique for the week, and see if it helps.

I tried gently straddling her, and lifting her, while hugging her this a.m. while quietly saying "settle" and she almost bit my nose. (and it's a small nose by the way..lol)

But, you know what? I feel like I'm making progress, it's either that, or she's beginning to understand English.


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## Tucker's mommy (Nov 9, 2011)

OH MY GOD. You own my dog. Seriously. Tucker just turned 11 months, and we have exactly the same issues. We are actually having a behaviourist visit us this weekend, as we are becoming oh so frustrated with the situation. I have a thread I started awhile back titled "anyone go through serious dominance issues with your golden". Well, we are now convinced our last trainer mis-directed us. It's not a dominance issue. It's an impulse control issue. And we're hopefully going to make progress with our new trainer/behaviourist. We do EVERYTHING that you do. 

BUT, one thing we do differently: I don't stick my fingers down Tucker's throat when he goes crazy on us. I gently take his muzzle in my hand, coax him into a "sit" and praise him and treat him when he finally calms enough to "kiss" me. But it is SOOOO much work. And we have three kids at home under the age of 8. So I never get a break. I love our dog, but I so feel your pain. I cannot wait till we can figure his mouthing issues out! 

PLEASE keep us posted as to what is working/not working for you. From the replies I've received from my post and upon viewing others, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few goldens out there with this temperment "quirk". I'm just hoping that with the work we put in and a little maturity, it will improve with age. GOOD LUCK!!!! I will post our continued progress as we work with our behaviourist, as I already know some others are eager to hear what this person will share with us! :wave:


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## Tucker's mommy (Nov 9, 2011)

To Penny's Mom - our Tucker is so strange that way, too, in that he just seems to "know" that kids are off-limits with his crazy antics. But adults.... oh boy.... steer clear if he's feeling friendly - which is ALL THE TIME!!!


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

Yes, how funny is that?
Bridget will NOT bite or jump on the 3 year old grandson, but views my husband and I as LUNCH sometimes.

I definitely think Bridget has impulse control issues too, and I'll be following this thread close!


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

Tucker's mommy said:


> OH MY GOD. You own my dog. Seriously. Tucker just turned 11 months, and we have exactly the same issues. We are actually having a behaviourist visit us this weekend, as we are becoming oh so frustrated with the situation. I have a thread I started awhile back titled "anyone go through serious dominance issues with your golden". Well, we are now convinced our last trainer mis-directed us. It's not a dominance issue. It's an impulse control issue. And we're hopefully going to make progress with our new trainer/behaviourist. We do EVERYTHING that you do.
> 
> BUT, one thing we do differently: I don't stick my fingers down Tucker's throat when he goes crazy on us. I gently take his muzzle in my hand, coax him into a "sit" and praise him and treat him when he finally calms enough to "kiss" me. But it is SOOOO much work. And we have three kids at home under the age of 8. So I never get a break. I love our dog, but I so feel your pain. I cannot wait till we can figure his mouthing issues out!
> 
> PLEASE keep us posted as to what is working/not working for you. From the replies I've received from my post and upon viewing others, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few goldens out there with this temperment "quirk". I'm just hoping that with the work we put in and a little maturity, it will improve with age. GOOD LUCK!!!! I will post our continued progress as we work with our behaviourist, as I already know some others are eager to hear what this person will share with us! :wave:


It's good to hear sometimes that you're not the only one in your position, huh? 

Compared to how he use to be a few months ago, he's def better, but it's still to much and to often. He appears to get more excited the better he knows the person. For example, we took him to a dog walk today for the SPCA where he did surprising well meeting strangers left and right with hardly any jumping or nipping. Half way through the walk, we ran into our dog walker and he went from a 2 to a 10 in a split second - jumping all over her, nipping at her doggie pouch and etc. Once she passed and went on her way, JJ instantly settled back down and could care less that there were 100 other people around us with dogs.

Aside from giving him timeouts, I've been trying another method to get him to focus and settle down. When he gets in his moods, it's hard to get him to obey any commands, but if you tell him to "sit" at the right moment (when he's trying to decide what to do next - jump at you or attack the feet), he'll do it, but usually won't follow-up with a "stay" and will instead jump all over you again within a second or two. So instead of "sit, stay", I'm having him "sit" and then "shake hands" or give a "high five". Then I tell him "good boy. wanna go get a treat? Let's go get a treat", and we run out to the kitchen and I make him sit for a minute and settle down before giving him the treat. It's been working, it's just a matter of being able to catch that moment when his brain is in between thoughts and you can squeeze a command in haha.


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

Timeouts in his crate don't seem to be working here.

JJ still gets into these moods were he likes to jump on you, pull on your cloths and nip you. He's ripped a few shirts in the process. I don't know if he just has worked up energy, if he's bored and wants to play, or what. He doesn't seem to be doing it to be mean. I think he more or less just wants to play or wants attention. 

He's walked 2-3 times a day and taken out in our yard to run around several times a day. As far as playing, he can't have toys cause he tears them apart in a matter of minutes, and he gets tired of his bones/antler and won't take them if you try to get his attention on one of those instead of your hand. It's hard to play ball with him in the house cause all he wants you to do is chase him around (hard in the house) and if you don't, he'll come over to you and drop the ball, and when you go to pick it up, he'll go for it and nip your hand instead, which leads to him jumping at you and nipping you more after being told "No".

When he starts jumping and nipping, we go "Ah-Ah" which usually does nothing to help these particular situations (he has selective hearing cause "Ah-Ah" works in other ways). After two/three times of "Ah-Ah", we tell him "No, biting...timeout" and put him in his crate for a few minutes. He doesn't fuss while he's in there and could care less if you give him a bone while he's in there. He'll just lay there and wait. When we let him out, he'll come over and look for our attention without nipping, but it doesn't last long before he's back to his usual self.

As said earlier, he's better on the leash but I can't leave one on him around the house cause he'll tear it apart. He does like to jump on strangers though and nip at their wrists. I always have to warn people of it and that he's a work in progress before they come to pet him to make sure not going to flip out if you jumps up real quick. Most of the time people say they could care less, but I do. After he nips a wrist/sleeve once or twice and puts some paws prints on you, he's good and he'll just sit there and wait while I talk and won't jump or nip again. He's extremely good with kids and lets them hang all over him and rub him all up without flinching. 

In regards to the differences between kids and adults, I don't know if it has to do with their size and the "bigger they are" the "rougher" he is, cause when it comes to small dogs he's gentle as can be, but when it comes to big dogs he's jumping all over the place and wild. Small kids he's fine with, taller adults he jumps on as if he feels he needs to be at their level. 

Back to the timeouts not working. No joke, he probably gets an average of 10 timeouts a day for his jumping and nipping, and we've been consistent with giving them to him for around 2-3 months. If you read my first post, you'll see I've tried just about everything short of a shock collar and putting a muzzle on him when he gets like that, both of which I might have to soon consider.

He's not neutered yet but will be within the next month or two when he's a year old. Will neutering him calm him down at all, or is that just an age-old myth?


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

Bridget is getting ALOT better, but when I play with her in the house, she still can get a little nippy.

When she starts that, I immediately say No Biting, quite loudly, and absolutely leave the room. I turn my back on her and walk away.

I've only crated her for a time out maybe a couple times in the last 3 months for biting...

What works for one, doesn't always work for all....


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## JDK (Jul 30, 2011)

mooselips said:


> Bridget is getting ALOT better, but when I play with her in the house, she still can get a little nippy.
> 
> When she starts that, I immediately say No Biting, quite loudly, and absolutely leave the room. I turn my back on her and walk away.
> 
> ...


Glad you're seeing improvement. The problem for us is that when we walk away he chases us down, jumping and nipping at our butt or feet, or grabbing the back of our shirts.

A few people suggested coming up with another place for timeouts and that maybe he's not getting the idea that him going in his crate means he did something wrong, since he takes all his naps in there and in his mind it's probably not a bad place to be. Like i said, as soon as he goes in there for a timeout, he lays right down and doesn't even fuss.


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## jluke (Nov 18, 2011)

*An Interruptor...*

I'm a fan of the compressed air interruptors. They're just a spray can like hair spray that release air under pressure and making a whooshing noise. It catches the dog's attention and redirects him/her. Our instructor used one in a class with a very barky, inattentive dog who set all the other dogs off. One spritz from the can and they all settled down. I used it to get Maisie to stop digging. When she started to dig, I spritzed. She looked up and I re-directed her to something fun like playing catch. In a few days -- no more digging. I got mine at PetSmart (or maybe PetCo...). They have a large can and a smaller size that hooks on your belt. Now I'm trying it when she jumps and bites at her leash when we're walking -- slowly, she's stopping... Silly puppies!


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

What I love about this forum is the problems that I thought were just my problems and I had adopted Satan’s spawn at 4 months old turned out to be not so uncommon after all. The snapping issue is BIG in my house. Tayla is 7 months old and used to be relentless with both my husband and me. We’ve never had a Golden puppy, although we have had a Golden, and in the past 16 years have never had a puppy, only adopted older dogs. Well the problem has gotten much better with me and I work on her all the time, but it’s still bad with my husband who has given up and thinks she is just a bad dog. I love reading all these posts to see she is just a Golden puppy and at some point she will get better. It just may take some time. Thanks for helping me sleep better at night.


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## Jenniz (Sep 13, 2014)

*How did you end up resolving this?*

Hi JDK, 

I have a 4 month old puppy, Ivy, who jumps and nips daily. It's really annoying and makes me nervous, I feel like she's attacking me. I can't ignore her because I don't want my pants to get torn or my legs to get bitten. She'll also play roughly with toys, pushing into me with the toy and biting and re-biting the toy (I'm worried my leg will get it soon).

I do give her time-outs in the crate, but I'm not sure she knows it's a time-out for her earlier behavior. But now she's reluctant to go in the crate because she has to spend so much time in there (I can't prepare meals, clean, attend to my kids, do laundry or anything if she's out of the crate) And I don't think it stops the behavior next time, just gives me some peace.

I was wondering if you got JJ's issues under control, and what worked for you.


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## mooselips (Dec 4, 2011)

Our Bridget, who is now almost 3, had the terrible nips. Everytime I walked her, she practically attacked me. We NEVER had a dog/puppy do this, I was at my wits end, and had thoughts (small one's) of sending her back to the breeder. I was bleeding to death, and have the scars on my arms to prove it.

But at around 5 months, I believe it was, (felt like FOREVER) it all went away, and she began to understand English.

Now, other than her excessive greeting strangers, all is well!

I am sure if you should look, you'll find some of my attack dog posts.

We also had a personal trainer come to the house...(didn't help)

So believe me, I feel for ya, just be firm, and time outs. Maybe in an enclosed gate area, instead of the crate?


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## Jenniz (Sep 13, 2014)

Thank you. I think it has gotten a bit better. I've lowered my expectations that she not do it too and just crate her when I need to get things done. I'm glad to know it will mostly fade away (hopefully).

Someone earlier on the thread had suggested a spray bottle with water, and that has worked, maybe only to stun her, but she let's go of my pants, or jumps down from the counter.

There are so many suggestions for how to train your dog to do things, but fewer on how to train them not to do something. I'm hanging in though. Thank you


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## Tayla's Mom (Apr 20, 2012)

Oh how I remember those days. That is how I found this forum. We were at wits end with Tayla. You can research some of my early posts from 2012. I was attacked every time I took her for a walk. Hubby every time he sat down. All my Golden friends said it was our fault we must be doing something wrong. Then I found this forum and at the time there were many people, including the OP on here. I got wonderful suggestions and by the time she hit a year she was 90% better. If she gets over excited she still can be overly mouthy, but a stern sit and wait calms her down. We still use the compressed air can someone suggested. Mainly if she gets too rowdy with her sister. It distracts her enough to listen. From wanting to give her away at 6 months to just the other night my husband said, you are turning into such a little lady. She is almost 3, but from 4 months to 11 months were a living hell for us.


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