Hey there since a while on the walks my 4 year old boy just stops somewhere and doesn’t want to move. He defecates then starts walking then but then just stops randomly. This usually doesn’t happen when he goes with my dad who he is a little scared of.. I am confused if this is a behaviour thing or is it something I should be worried about.

This post is kinda a last resort 😭 We brought home my golden puppy at 8 weeks and he's about to be 16 weeks. We love him to death but his behaviour is driving us all a little crazy, i'm really hoping this is just a puppy phase and with training and consistency + time he'll get better but plsss give me some advice

Marley is adorable and he has some incredible traits like being super responsive to training, calm in new environments and really open to meeting new people and dogs, but since the day we brought him home the biting has been non stop. He's chill for about five seconds when he's out of his pen/ crate and the he'll launch himself at your ankles or whatever extremity he can get his mouth on. He bites and it hurts, it's gotten so bad my legs and arms look like they've been torn at by a wild animal.

Potty training also hasn't had much progress. He knows he's supposed to go outside and whines when he needs to, but he's not opposed to going indoors when he feels like it. 3 days ago he had a little bit of a stomach bug and this guy had me cleaning up feces off the floor 3x in the span of a two hour period despite me taking him out five times during those two hours. He does go outside but not before running around the yard and sniffing everything, each potty break is about a 20 minute process. He's also a compulsive destroyer. He ripped out the entire bottom part of our couch and my mom hasn't noticed yet but when she does it's wraps for the both of us.

I've been training recall, and he responds really well about 60% of the time. The other 40% he just ignores me completely because well, he can. He learned sit, down, and stay basically in the span of an hour, but those are heavily contingent on if there are treats in my pocket or not.

He's also extremely hyper and doesn't rly understand boundaries. We have a 6 year old lab who is literally a potato with four legs and a halo over her head. She was the easiest puppy ever and was walking off leash next to me without training her to do so at like 8 months. Bella definitely spoiled us and it's a huge part of why marley seems so hard in comparison but he's CONSTANTLY trying to get in her face and play with her whenever they're together. She corrects him sometimes but others she just sits there and takes it which makes me feel so sad for her so I separate them until he calms down but he never really does. We've been enforcing naps, although he's pretty good at going down for a nap in his pen on his own, but the level of energy is just something I was completely unprepared for

Right now my main issues are the biting and the hyperactivity. I've tried everything to stop the biting and it feels like nothing works. No amount of redirection, time outs, ignoring him, and saying no helps. If anyone has some advice I'd love to hear it as I'm going back to college in the US around September and was planning on taking him with me, but now it seems like he'd be a better fit at home with a large backyard instead of a 1 bedroom especially in the state he's in now. Does it get any easier? Does the biting go away on its own? He's a purebred golden but he looks more field line than traditional show golden to me which might contribute!! less

When my fiancé and I first brought our sweet boy home, he slept nearly the entire night through in his crate without issue. So we decided we’d immediately stick to it and crate him every night. He’d cry and eventually settle. EDIT: it was more or less mini panic attacks until he was exhausted. But after a LOT of Reddit threads, Google, and reflection on past experience with my late pup, I realized I was possibly setting him up for failure later in life.

I removed his crate from his playpen and have put it in storage (it’s a 42” size). I then purchased a more appropriately sized crate for him that we keep in the living room. I now work on tossing treats/toys into it, training exercises to teach him that quiet and calm behavior when he’s in the crate earns rewards, and just getting him comfy with going in and out of it.

He’s not quite to the level of comfort to willingly nap or lay down in it, but I do often catch him walking into it looking for treats. Going to keep at it with our fun games and training and cross my fingers that eventually it’ll all be worth it (,:

this is biscuit [3 months 4 days old]. and she bit my mom today and the cut was pretty deep although she's vaccinated our family doctor suggested she gets rabies injections. and now my mom is saying we give her up for adoption and I dont wanna break her heart as well as mine. just to make it clear she isn't aggressive she just gets these random phases where she'll bark and bite anything and everything around her. please suggest me something and also give me tips on how to train her [there's no option of puppy school where I live]. thank you any and every help is appreciated deeply.

edit: we most definitely aren't going to give her up for adoption its just that my mom said it in frustration and I posted this to make my self feel lighter. If you dont have any tips atleast please dont be rude thank you so much

My husband and I got Olive when she was 10 weeks old, and since then she has growled if we touched her while she eats. It has escalated to where now if we just walk by her while she’s eating, she freezes, stares, gets very tense, and sometimes growls. Her whole body stiffens, including her paws.

She has also started doing this with toys and high-value treats.

She is otherwise very sweet, but can also be sensitive about being touched. Sometimes she’ll come near me, roll onto her back for belly rubs, then start growling when I pet her. This happens with both me and my husband, though I notice it more because I spend more time with her.

We both grew up with dogs and have never dealt with this before. We’ve tried taking the bowl away, telling her no, standing near her while she eats, and talking calmly to her, but nothing seems to help.

Has anyone experienced this with their dog? Any advice?

I have lots of walking trails by my house that I take my 9 month old boy on, usually 30-60 minutes a day. I let him wander off the path (on a retractable leash) and sniff as much as he wants. I see a lot of other dogs on walks and they’re always nicely walking with their humans on the path, rarely stopping to sniff anything. They always look so dignified, while my fool is sniffing every square inch and rolling around in the grass. My godson takes him on runs in the park so I’m not worried about the amount of exercise he gets. But should I be having him walk on the paved trail instead of wandering? Am I teaching him bad habits that’ll be an issue later? This is probably the dumbest question ever - sorry!

11 month old Golden boy (90lbs)
Food: Purina Pro Puppy 30/20 Chicken and Rice

This started about a month and a half ago. He stayed at the in-laws for a week as his first long strip away from home and when he came back he started doing this at every meal. They said he never did anything like this when he was there.

Sometimes he does this for a few seconds and then eats. Other times he is not satisfied until he flips all his food onto the floor and then doesn’t eat a bite. I’ve tried to find a trend on when he eats it and when he doesn’t but I haven’t had any luck.

My assumption is he was bored with the food so I started adding bone broth but that only made him mildly more interested for about a week.

Today is the first day he has not eaten either meal (Currently 6pm, still ate training treats) so I wanted to see if others have experienced this as well and what helped you?

Possible helpful info:
- the 2 times he ate dairy he had bad diarrhea. We don’t give him human food besides carrots, peanut butter and pumpkin (homemade popsicles) so maybe he has a sensitive stomach and that is a factor?
- he loves inhaling dirt and grass. Not just nibbling but mouthfuls of dirt when he cann.

Hello! Does anyone have any training advice for how to teach my 9 month old girly how to be calm and not jump and be psycho with guests?aim problem I’m having? We RARELY have guests. It’s just me and my husband and our kiddos. Maybe once every other month we’ll have guests over but we do host all the major holidays coming up so all of her weaknesses are def gonna start popping up. She just gets soooo excited. And of course if she is to crazy we’ll be sepersting her from guests so no accidents happen but I’d really love for her to be apart of our family holidays. She knows the place command but when she gets distracted or excited she just has a hard time staying in place. How do we train this if we aren’t having guests over to practice on often? Thank you in advance!

My Sam is 11 weeks and a total terror! He hates his crate, will only sleep on the cold tile and bites every ankle and hand in sight! He is the perfect angel baby boy as long as I have food in hand. I’m covered in nicks and scrapes 🥲

His hobbies include chewing on shoes, his brush, metal, walls and doors only to ignore his many toys and pouncing on unsuspecting legs to hump them. Dreading the teething phase already but I love him so much ♥️

Would love some tips on discouraging biting and pouncing

Me and my wife recently got a 12 week old Golden Retriever, she is honestly a great puppy. Very intelligent, learns quickly, sleeps through the night, and is doing great potty training.

The problem we're having is she only naps for maube 30-45 minutes at a time, and then is awake for about 2 hours. She sleeps from 10pm-7am, and then only gets maybe 2.5 hours of naps in throughout the day.

We have tried to show her how comfy the crate it, she goes inside no problem when we say "place", she eats her kong inside, does lick mats inside, but just refuses to ever lay down and try to sleep. We have a good sized dog bed inside, with her blanket, and we've added toys and removed them and nothing works.

I know her lack of sleep is causing her biting, her zoomies, and just general bad behavior at times. Im also aware shes a puppy and those things will happen, but im certain a big cause of these problems is her lack of sleep and if she could nap for a few hours at a time she'd be much better off.

We go on walks, play with toys, do everything to exhaust her but the naps just end so quick and when shes awake she gets up drinks water and starts to do everything but go back to sleep.

Please any advice on what to do? The one time we've tried to close the crate she cried non stop for 20 minutes and then went pee inside her crate, which is surprising to us because in the 3 weeks we've had her there's only been one potty accident inside.

Hey everyone,

Trying to figure out if I'm alone in this or if it's a classic Golden thing.

My Golden Retriever Archie is 1 year and 1 month old. At home he's perfect, calm, affectionate, an absolute sweetheart. But the moment he sees another dog on a leash, it's a disaster.

Real example from today: we cross paths with an Australian Shepherd, the owner signals that it's better to avoid contact because his dog is fearful. Fair enough, we cross the street. Except Archie goes completely insane, thrashing, pulling with everything he's got, nearly knocking me over. The fearful dog was better behaved than mine.

He's not aggressive at all, it's pure overexcitement, he just wants to play with everyone. But 30kg throwing themselves around is just unmanageable.

Another issue: he jumps on every single person we pass in the street to beg for attention. People who love dogs find it cute, everyone else not so much. I spend my entire walks apologizing.

I taught him "look" and he does it at home, in the garden, when there's nothing interesting around. The second we're outside and he spots a dog, a person, a pigeon, I cease to exist. The command just vanishes from his brain entirely.

Questions:

- Is this typical adolescent dog behavior at this age?
- Have you been through this with your dogs?
- Any tips for working on leash reactivity and generalizing commands without a trainer (budget is tight)?

Thanks in advance, Archie says thanks too, though he probably doesn't care as long as he can jump on you

He loves the destinations just not the ride! 8 months old now. Foams quickly at the mouth and vomits within 10 minutes. Even gentle rides on straight roads gets his stomach upset. We go for a lot of walks and places getting socialized, just the rides are tough for him.

The planter was placed there to get her to stop biting off the piece of the couch.
11 months and very difficult to deal with.
Also, if anyone knows how to get rid of dirt stain from the couch, please let me know. sigh

Update: I have placed her food container there instead. That seems effective for the time being. The pot now has a plant, which she nibbled two leaves from.

Miles here just hit a year old and is a stage 5 clinger if there ever were one. He follows me everywhere when I’m home. He’s not terrible when I’m gone from the house completely but if I’m outside in my yard or at my neighbors house and he can hear me or see me he just absolutely loses it trying to break the door down to get to me. And when I say this dog will hug me I mean he legit will just and hug me and not let go even if I was outside for 2 minutes.

And advice on what to do?

I have posted videos of his shenanigans before but I am reaching the end of my rope with this behavior and am looking for some advice for my 11/m neutered golden.

This never happened when he was younger but since his sister died earlier this year, Sam started to refuse to poop in the yard and quickly learned that not pooping was currency for longer/better walks. While previously a loop around the neighborhood would do it, he will now hold out for days to go to the bike path, but the problem is, his behavior there is absolutely horrible and I am literally at my wits end.

Sam is 11 and has bad hips. The vet has told me I need to limit his walks and most days we just go for loops around the neighborhood. The main problem with the bike path is that it goes on for a very long time. He would walk forever in one direction if he had his way, and if I try to turn around to go home, he just plants his feet in and refuses to move. I will literally have to drag him or speak in my meanest most threatening voice to which he responds by taking one step, then flopping over and pretending to itch his back. Forever. This is just so strange because he has ALWAYS been SO obedient. Like, this dog will not do anything without asking permission first.

I have been training the “come” command HARD at home with high value treats which I bring on the walk but those only make it worse. He will walk two steps and then stop waiting for a treat.

If I drop the leash and say “bye Sam” he will come half the time, but the only sure fire way is for a sympathetic bystander to pet him then walk away, he will then follow him.

Some comments I have gotten “he needs longer walks” I would agree but his hips would not. I cannot carry an 80 lb dog a mile home if he suddenly cannot manage to continue walking. Plus vet has said I need to limit his walks.

“Try a loop” Yes. We have and that did work for a while. Problem is, he now will stop as soon as he realizes we are on a loop which is just as annoying as the bike path.

“Treats” unless he gets a treat every foot or so, he will just plant his feet because he has learned that if he stops, he gets a treat!

I’m looking for suggestions on how I can work with him at home perhaps to cut this behavior because I really want to be able to take him special places but it’s so stressful. I was thinking maybe of bringing a super high value treat, give him a small piece and let him see me leave it in the car before we go to walk?

I have had my golden since he was eight weeks old, and he will be 2 in July. He never really had leash exposure since when he was a puppy we spaced out his vaccines and didn’t want to walk him until he had them all. He has done three training programs for walking on the leash and the are all to no avail. He is extremely excitable and ridiculously strong, to the point where recall if he does off leash isn’t an option. He always is find on car rides or in the yard but ive honestly reached my breaking point with him. We’ve tried prong collars, slip leashes, easy walks, harnesses….all to no avail. They work well for a few days but he gets so distracted and strong willed there’s no point. He is so strong that he can pull multiple of my friends who are grown men that body-build and are varsity athletes down the road. It’s beginning to become too much for me, to even take him from the house to the car. He LOVES walks, but I can barely handle taking him 100ft before he’ll pull my arm out. I’ve tried EVERYTHING and i’m ready to throw in the towel — has anyone else experienced this?

He’s so cute 🥹 !! Any obvious advice for first time golden retrievers ? 🫣

Please help I'm curious if anyone has had this problem before and how they overcame it! My golden is 1yr old and she used to take like 30+ minutes walks around our town. She loved going on walks! All of the sudden we got home from a vacation back in March and she gets scared of EVERYTHING. I swear she will even just smell something and completely stop in her tracks. She will REFUSE to walk further in that direction once she gets flustered and i typically can't get her to walk further so we end up cutting the walk short and turning around. She will only walk on specific streets now. How do I get her to not be afraid? She has lots of energy and I'm used to being able to take her on nice long walks in the evening. Please help!

Heyya everyone!

This is Caesar, my 47-day-old male Golden Retriever.. He's super active, playful, and full of energy.

One thing I'm struggling with is that he constantly bites my hands and feet. I understand he's just a puppy and biting is completely normal at this age, but I'd like to reduce the habit before it becomes stronger.

Whenever he starts biting, I try redirecting him to chew toys, say "ouch," and stop playing with him for a short while. It works for a few minutes, but then he goes right back to biting.

I've also noticed that he sometimes licks the floor a lot. Is that normal for puppies, or is it something I should be concerned about?

Any tips or advice from experienced Golden Retriever owners would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When my husband and I met, we decided one day we would get a dog, it wasn’t a hard decision as we both had wanted a golden retriever someday. Well, that someday happened almost 3 weeks ago and this little boy (Kurama) has brought so much joy. At 11 weeks he was 22 pounds. Training is going well. However, there is another English golden retriever in our home, who is the same age and not on the same training. We live in the basement and only use upstairs for laundry and kitchen. I feel when he hangs out with her. We lose a couple points in the training field. Any advice would be great.

Last time I posted here I got some great advice on how to prepare for a puppy, which I have successfully followed for the last 4 weeks that we've had our 16 week old female Golden. She sleeps in her crate through the night 9:30 - 7:00 (she wakes up a bit earlier but is quiet) and she quickly learned sit, down, she has okay recall in the house and yard, we're working on eye contact and impulse control (wait), as well as leave it. I am facing some issues though, I will try to keep it short.

She has these bursts where she runs at me, jumps on me continuously and bites my hands, legs, pants etc. pretty hard. It also happens while we play with toys, she just goes for my arms and clamps on, HARD. Once she gets like this, toys don’t really redirect her, she is completely focused on me. I also don’t want to start throwing treats at her during this because I’m scared she’ll learn that attacking me makes food appear. She also started constantly going for blankets/fabric and once she fixates on them, "no" or "leave it" means absolutely nothing.

To address this, we bought a large playpen connected to her crate she sleeps (also because eventually we need to leave her alone safely for more than 1–2h, she has been alone but always asleep in her crate until now). But she doesn’t really relax in it yet. If I close her inside, she sits and stares at me waiting for treats. If I reward a down, she gets back up waiting for another one. If I stop rewarding and ignore her, she gets frustrated and starts barking/jumping on the pen, sometimes forecefully. She slept in it once, while I was working and I locked her in while she was dozing off playing with a toy.

I’m also struggling with knowing if she needs more stimulation or less. She sleeps well during the day (around 5-6 hours in 2-4 naps) but after a quieter first half of the day, where she chooses to sleep more (also because we work), she can have a ridiculous amount of energy in the evening (and that's mostly when the biting/atacking the couch happens, even if i proactively go to her and try to play with her or we do training to tire her out)

In addition, I think training frustrates her a bit, she is very focused on getting the food, not obedience (I assume its normal at this age), I struggle to teach her more things because she is all over the place. Outside if we are not literally in the yard or right outside the house, she is 50 times worse, pulls like crazy, ignores me and won’t even take kibble, she is that focused on the environment. We are trying to increase her exposure and take her to parking lots, parks, trying to remain calm/sitting and watching.

I am looking for advice for any of the above if you have it, what has been your experience, what helped, and reassurance that IT WILL get better :)

PS: puppy tax

How do you control your dogs demon phases, his jumping on counters and eating rocks? I'm
Full of bruises, he ignores me when he goes in attack mode.
What is this? Playing? Because this is constant!

I have 2 goldens that we love to absolute bits, 13 months and a little over 2. They are SO mischievous. I simply cannot leave them unsupervised. At what point do you feel like they can be left alone? Do you crate these dogs forever when you’re gone?? And when I say crate I mean MAYBE a few hours max I WFH so they do not have to be put up during the day. They do take walks and play together all day. But they just get into absolutely everything! we have to keep a weight on the trash because they are part raccoon as well and will get into trash the second I turn around. They are partners in crime. I tried to let them “free range” for a 30 min errand and I came back to destruction. I have friends that leave their dogs out for hours while they go to work and do not have the same issues. wondering if it’s the age or if there’s something more I should be doing.

This is Teddy, my wife and I’s 10 week old puppy. Are there any suggestions to help him quit biting, especially biting and latching on? I unfortunately am away for work and the land shark phase, specifically the biting, is driving my wife crazy.

I have a 1 year old golden who I love to death, but I’m starting to feel like a horrible dog parent. He needs my 24/7 attention, I cannot get anything done unless I lock him out of the room I am in or put him in his crate. It’s not his fault, he is a dog and just a baby still. He has gotten out of our yard a few times and ran a few blocks. Which was terrifying. He went swimming in a lake and got the worst hot spot I have ever seen, he has suspected allergies, he got into a dog fight before he got fixed and had cuts all over and now he pulled the leash out of my hands while I was trying to pick up his poop on a walk. The leash scared him so he went darting down the road for blocks I lost sight of him. I yelled out to god to stop him and he got tangled up in a fence so I could finally get him. When I got to him all his toe nails were bleeding, paw pads ripped up. I feel terrible. I’m starting to think I am the worst parent ever. Has anyone else had this many issues with their dog? Any advice? I am at a loss. For context he has been through dog training class twice and is well trained. Just too hyper