help! my golden is a year old and attacks my husband every evening. she has been doing this since she was 4 months old. She bites him repeatedly until he either pins her down to settle her or he leaves the room. He has tried turning his back to her, growling a "no" at her, sweet talking her, offering another type of play with her ect... this followed by what i call the "Crazies". (she starts doing laps in the house when she is done). is she playing or wanting to hurt him. she draws blood almost every time!

How did you get my Tayla? She is so much worse with him.

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Barb, Rick and Tayla (STAR Puppy)



Cheyenne (CGC) and Jesse (CGC) who will be always loved and never forgotten.

It's playful... Is it annoying? (must be or else why would you be posting) Have you done any obedience classes with her?

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"Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really." ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Megan and Kahuna

Play, play, play, play!!!!!! If you want it to stop, find her another dog to wrestle with.

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Carolyn (A.K.A. Aunt Care) and

Creekwood Tanglefoot Selchie CD, RN, AX, AXJ, CGC, CCA, (A.K.A. Selli-Belle) Golden

Valentine Byrd McDuff (A.K.A. Duffy) Golden/Sheltie

Tanglefoot Autumn Dexter CGC (My Heart Dog at the Bridge) Golden

It's play but it can do some real damage. Work on not letting her get so excited. Men especially seem to love to be wrestle with their dogs, and sometimes it backfires. When she starts ramping up the energy, back off and let her calm down. Play another time when she isn't as excited. One thing I found helped was to hold myself perfectly still. I don't jerk my arm away, I just let Ben hold it in his mouth. He usually spits it out, or licks it instead. I reward licks with a treat. I don't reward bites by giving him the excitement he is looking for.

Tayla is ramped just by seeing my husband. I know I've worked with her much more about jumping on me when I'm sitting, but Rick not so much so he is the recipient of her "attacks".

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Barb, Rick and Tayla (STAR Puppy)



Cheyenne (CGC) and Jesse (CGC) who will be always loved and never forgotten.

I'll call it playful but pushy. My last dog (granted a collie) would not have dreamed of engaging in such a game if he even got the slightest bit of resistance from me. This current dog, it's game on!

I've found it's easier to train Casper to do something specific in a specific situation, rather than trying to teach him not to do something. So, for example, I've trained Casper to Back and Down when I put my shoes and socks on. I don't have to teach him "stop grabbing my socks and shoelaces". Works pretty well, but I can see the wheels spinning. "Do I want to grab socks or get a treat? Treat. Socks. Treat. Socks. Hmm."


Some other ideas:

• Stuff a toy in her mouth every time she starts to act up. She might eventually figure out to do this herself. Casper did.
• Reward her every time she picks up a toy. Better a toy than your arm. Praise could be pets, verbal praise, wiggling the toy a bit. Treats work, too, but then she'll drop the toy.
• Move the crazies outside. Just open the back door and point!
• Train the crazies. My dog will start up his crazies with the command "run, run, run." When he's got "that look" and I know he's due for some exercise, out the back door and run, run, run!
• Change the schedule/situation. Whatever it is that starts the attack, stop doing it. If it's a particular door you walk through, if it's a particular toy you pick up, etc. The behavior might disappear through lack of reinforcement. OK, I know that sounds magical. But for some cases, it does work. For example, Casper would get all excited walking through a particular patch of grass. No more visiting that patch! He still looks lovingly at the patch as we pass by sometimes, but eventually he'll forget that it was even interesting.

Gus and my husband like to play rough. He growls, shows big fierce teeth, then grabs his stuffed toy and gives it a big shake. He never bites, though. I think I would try to tone down the rough play if that were to happen.

88 cents at Walmart. It's in the produce section.



Squirt it in her mouth when she does that, and say "no bite, no bite, no bite." Squirt a lot, or she may actually like the taste. After a few times, you may only need to show her the bottle to get her to stop. Mine used to do that too, up until recently. I'm not talking about the little bitey stuff they all do to your hands (although we nipped that one in the bud too). I'm talking about the jumping up, growling, and play biting that you're talking about. I weigh 190 lbs. I had a hard enough time fending her off. She also did it to my 8 year old daughter who weighs 50 lbs. Unacceptable.

Binaca will work, too. Smaller, cleaner, but costs a couple of dollars more.