[Llidisky]

Ok,

So my 9 week old little boy is bipolar, he is either sleeping and nice or hyper and destorying and biting everything. He chews on everything! I have taken the stuff he is not suppose to chew on away and replaced it with his toys probably a hundred times. He has a very poor attention span, and goes right back to my kids toys. He has chewed up some wires to my little girls innotab charger. When he is not sleepy all he wants to do is bite. You try to pet him and he bites, he knocked my 2 year old down to get her food jumping all over her acting as if he had never been fed before. I just need some help calming him. When it is just me and him, I can get him to listen, but when others are around he can be very stubborn. My wife is about to ship him out. He didn't have an accident in the house at all the first 5 days, now we find him running to the back and pooping in my daughters room. I crate him by our bed at night because he is going to kill himself in the crate if i put it anywhere away from us. I would like to crate during the day but he will literally bark for hours. We have every toy and chew imaginable. bully sticks, lamb sticks, pig ears, hard squeaky toys, plush toys, balls, everything. I work with him for periods of 15 minutes or so 3-4 times a day trying to train sit, down, come, off, and others. I can get him to sit for a split second with treats, down with treats only, come most of the time, off and leave it are a joke right now. i just gotta find a way for him not to bite humans, and to quit chewing on non doggy toys

 

[MikaTallulah]

You can try spraying bitter apple- antichew spray- on things you don't want him to chew especially wires or your hands. Puppies at this age explore with their mouths primarily and have shirt attention spans. Puppies have to learn appropriate play. My brother's hands were covered with teeth scraps when Lucky was a puppy because he let him do it. Goldens tend to be mouthy puppies.

You could put a leash on him and teeter him to yourself so he can't run to poop in your daughters room, chew things he should not chew without you seeing to immediately correcting him, or knocking your 2 year old over to steal her food. They are a lot of work at this age but the work you put into him now you will reap the rewards later.

Take a deep breath and try to relax.

 

[Cathy's Gunner]

Go to our puppies section and scroll down and you will find all kinds of help. I went there and found this from one of our members.

Ten products to help survive puppyhood - Los Angeles Dogs | Examiner.com


All this is normal but as the prior member stated, "puppies are a lot of work, but the work will be rewarding later."

 

[MarieP]

That sounds like a typical 9 week old golden. He is a toddler right now! You said he has a very short attention span. All puppies do! He's a baby! I'm sorry, but you should have known this was exactly what you were signing up for when you got a puppy. He needs exercise, and LOTS of it. Barking wise, you are just going to have to wait him out, just like you would with a baby crying. Mouthing is normal. He's a golden. They put everything in their mouths. You're not going to be able to really stop him from mouthing. It's more something they have to grow out of. A short "time out" when they mouth is sometimes effective. Put up your kids toys, or keep him in a separate area where he can't get to them. He has NO idea there is a difference between his and the kid's toys. Again, I can't stress it enough... HE IS A BABY!!!! If this isn't something you can deal with, you should return him to his breeder. Sorry to be harsh, but this is the reality.

 

[BriGuy]

Have you tried working on some crate training? I have heard that Crate Games is a good resource:
Welcome to Dogwise.com

Puppies need to get used to the crate, so they can go in there when they get worked up.

It is difficult with children, I know! But, remain calm and you will get through this. By the time your pup is a year old, you will really appreciate all the hard work that you invested in him.

 

[LibertyME]

He sounds like a perfectly normal active curious puppy and you and your wife tired parents and frustrated puppy owners!

He goes back to your children's rooms and to their toys because he can! Management is going to save your sanity! Please use baby gates and ex-pens to keep him from getting into mischief....mischief that is not only destructive, but could be very dangerous.

When the pup and children are in the same room...someone has to have their hands on the pup at all times...A happy, healthy, playful pup will rejoice and play with his little people with the same enthusiasm he would with another puppy.

IMHO...it is going to be worth all the time and energy to teach your pup to accept being crated or to tolerate separation in some other puppy-proof safe place...you have young children and at times during the day you and your wife are going to need to be able to focus on the children for family mealtimes, doctors appointments, school functions etc...

 

[Megora]

You and your wife need to be on the same page when it comes to how you handle the mouthing, jumping, chewing, barking, potty training, and "blowing off steam" outings outside (with you or the wife out there monitoring).

During meals, if he can't be crated - you need to put him on leash and hook it to your chair, away from the kids. Or you can start eating in shifts and use the time that the kids are eating to go outside or in another room with the puppy so he's not aware there is food in the dining room.

The other thing is whether you use crates or not, a puppy younger than 7 months should not have complete run of the house. You need to invest in a baby gate and use it to keep the pup in the same rooms as you, preferably rooms that have been both baby proofed and puppy proofed.

When your baby is down on the floor, the puppy needs to be on leash and under complete control. And this until the puppy settles down and your daughter gets a bit more stable on her feet. Meaning that until your daughter is 4 or 5 or even older, you need to be on the ball and monitoring the two.

The mouthing, biting, chewing, fussing, barking - a lot of this comes from a combination of your puppy "settling" in your home and investigating his world with his mouth and he's also probably teething.

The training will have to continue for the next 2 years. Your dog will be constantly learning good behaviors from you, while also trying out all those other behaviors to see "what works" to get what he wants. <- I would recommend finding a good trainer, get them on speed dial, and sign up for some form of classes for at least the next year.

The downside of owning goldens (that I've observed from my dogs) is that you either get a barker or a biter. And when that dog gets hyped up or uber excited, he loses control of that mouth. That's where you need to be patient and have a good "settle" technique ready.

Good luck.

 

[cubbysan]

It is very difficult to have a golden puppy with young children. My breeder would not sell to a family with children under 4. My daughters were 4,8 & 9 - and the first few months were very hard. You kids are going to lose toys, have ripped clothes and chewed up hands.

To make life easier, and to get through these first few months, I had Brady leashed to me at all times. It helped with house breaking and it helped with him being a "landshark".

Get him into puppy kindergarten. It will be very stimulating and exhausting for him. It will help you with the bonding experience and it will also help you learn what you should be expecting from him.

Try to tire him out. A puppy that young can not go for long walks, but play with him in the yard. I used to fill the bathtub and play with him in there. He would have a blast.

Puppyhood is very long and trying for a golden retriever owner - especially one with young kids, but I can tell you now, my goldens have become the best dogs I have ever own - although no stuffed animals are safe in my house.

 

[Wyatt's mommy]

Everyone has given great advice. The pup is ONLY 9 WEEKS OLD. He should not have the run of the house. Just like a baby everything goes in the mouth. I would suggest an x pen with lots of puppy toys right in the middle of all the family action.

And honestly it is going to get worse before it gets better. But in the end if you are anything like most of us here you will look back and laugh about it. You don't see it now, but it will get better and you will be glad you stuck with him thru the oh so ugly puppy stage

 

[gardn198]

that sounds exactly like my 8 week old golden- have you ever owned a dog before? this isn't out of the ordinary. I guarantee that in a few weeks he will calm down, but you have to establish your dominance. Puppies are HARD WORK! I was up til 415 am last night trying to get Holly to sleep. She was wild and hyper and I tried EVERYTHING but she just wouldn't calm down. Finally I put her in her crate and walked away, she cried for 5 minutes so I went and laid down next to her crate. She finally fell asleep. If you can get through these tough first few months you will have the most loving, loyal dog there is. We had our last golden for 12 years and she was the sweetest dog I ever knew, but boy was she a terror when she was little! This is not a sample of what his behavior will be like as an adult. He's just a baby, he hasn't learned what's right and wrong yet. PLEASE keep him and give him the love and attention he needs to learn how to be a good boy!

 

[BriGuy]

Also, I wanted to add that Ian Dunbar has a really good (and free!) online textbook titled "Raising a Puppy".

Raising A Puppy | Dog Star Daily

There is lots of training information on that website, and I think you will really be able to benefit from it. I know I did.

 

[vcm5]

I would definitely stress that you need to keep the puppy and your child separated unless they are under strict supervision - do not allow them alone together, or even together when not being carefully watched. Both are delicate and a child could hurt a puppy or a puppy could hurt a child very easily, without even meaning to. Separate them with a gate and teach your child how to handle the puppy properly and gently.

As for the puppy, I pretty much second what everyone else is saying. At nine weeks a puppy is just a baby and does not know how to behave or what is expected of it. Supervision, management, and training should start as soon as possible, but remember that it would be a long road ahead. Consider enrolling in puppy kindergarten as soon as possible!

 

[quilter]

Another good book is "My Smart Puppy".

 

[Golden999]

I think a lot of people don't realize how difficult raising a puppy is. They just think of the older already-trained dogs that they've had in the past or seen other people with. When you're dealing with a young puppy, though, you are literally at square one- they are essentially wild animals with no training. You've got to teach him how to be civilized, often against his strongest most basic instincts, and that's going to take time. It's like raising a child in a lot of ways (Remember the terrible twos with your children?).

The fact that he won't poop in front of you inside and runs to a different room to do it, at nine weeks, is actually a good sign. It means he's starting to understand the basic concept that you don't want him to poop in the house. Otherwise, he wouldn't be running to do it where you can't see him. Either that, or he assumes you just don't want him to poop in the main rooms. But it means in a week you've already got him a decent amount of the way towards house training, which is a big accomplishment. For some people and dogs it can take like six months to house train a puppy. I did it in three weeks, but I was very happy and pleasantly surprised with that, and I think he still would have been having accidents had he free roam of the apartment in the early months (He'd still occasionally have an accident for the next couple months when I took him to visit relatives with a large house).

Honestly, that young, I just wouldn't let him out of your sight for long. If you're in, say, the living room for a while and you can close doors or put up little child-proof gates so he stays in there with you, that's a plus. For the first year I had my dog, when I was in the living room, I shut the door so he'd stay in there with me. I couldn't do that when I was in the kitchen, but I kept my eye on him and called him back if he wandered out of the kitchen while I was in it. The only time I really left him unsupervised to wander was when I used the bathroom real quick. If I showered, he was put in his kennel until I got out and got dressed.

Of course, eventually, he got the freedom to roam through the apartment at will, when I thought I could trust him with it.

One thing to keep in mind with the biting is that usually when goldens do that, they are trying to play. If you've ever watched puppies or dog friends frolic with each other, there's a lot of biting. It's like how human boys do some wrestling with each other and play tag and stuff in good fun. The dog probably is trying to play with you guys, not hurt you. Of course, you want to train him that we don't bite when we play, but sometimes that is tough- my dog mostly gets it with people who aren't me, but when he's hanging out with me, he'll still sometimes playful bite at nearly two years old, because he's like "Listen pal, you're in my pack, therefore I can playfully bite you". Some dogs are just naturally very bitey and it may take time to teach them that that's not acceptable in the human world.

Goldens are just very oral in general. I got the golden I have now to stop chewing on wires and furniture pretty quick, but the golden I had as a kid would naw on the furniture until he was 2 or 3 years old. My father almost gave away my childhood dog several times due to chewing. Even though my current one stopped chewing wires and stuff in a few weeks, he still went through a phase before that where he drug toys over to wires, chewed on the wires, and then when I looked over, he'd quickly switch to chewing the toy as if that's what he had been doing all along. I took that as a sign that he was beginning to understand my expectations, though, and also that he was really smart to be able to figure out how to try to fool me. All dogs are different and learn on different schedules and grasp some things easier than others.

The jumping you're seeing is the way wolf cubs greet their leaders when they return from hunting. The puppy is essentially just really excited to see you and expressing it by jumping. Again, you probably want to try to train that out of him, but he's not actually trying to hurt you. Just like with the play biting, it's instinctual behavior that's considered friendly in the dog world.

 

[Tucker's mommy]

I know what you're going through. We have a seven month golden, and three kids - ages 2, 6 and 7. The first few months would have been a nightmare for us if we hadn't used baby gates. I think our friends thought we were crazy - we had them up all over the house so we could easily remove our pup/kids from each other when things got crazy. It worked very well for us. Now, at seven months, we still have a room in the downstairs that is off limits to the pup where all the kids' small toys are. And we watch Tucker like a hawk if the older two boys have the video game things out where he could grab something. But over time, he seems to have learned what's his and what's not (with a few setbacks). Good luck - it does get better, and the baby gates really do help.

 

[Golden999]

Also, one thing I found, and your experience may vary, is that as a young puppy my dog wasn't really that interested in licking people's hands or being petted. Nowadays he practically begs to be petted constantly, though. At some point there's a shift from "play, play, play" to "love me and play with me". Just like you've got stages of childhood development in humans, there are stages of puppy development in dogs. Just keep working with him and training him and give him some time to grow up and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

It does take a lot of hard work, though, and it does get frustrating in the early going. I was close to a nervous breakdown caring for my puppy all by myself, but I did get through it and now he's my buddy.

 

[Tucker's mommy]

I forgot to add - Tucker will be eight months old at the end of January, and he is FINALLY starting to calm down with his mouthiness. It has taken THIS LONG, even with our constant training and consistent treatment. Up until this past month, we would dread going outside with him because we knew his shark-like tendencies were just waiting to surface! He is really turning into a gentle soul - but boy has it taken a long time! Good luck!

 

[cubbysan]

Also, one thing I found, and your experience may vary, is that as a young puppy my dog wasn't really that interested in licking people's hands or being petted. Nowadays he practically begs to be petted constantly, though. At some point there's a shift from "play, play, play" to "love me and play with me". Just like you've got stages of childhood development in humans, there are stages of puppy development in dogs. Just keep working with him and training him and give him some time to grow up and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

It does take a lot of hard work, though, and it does get frustrating in the early going. I was close to a nervous breakdown caring for my puppy all by myself, but I did get through it and now he's my buddy.

Very good point. Brady did not start cuddling until he was 8 months, and MacKenzie about 18 months. Now I can't get Brady off my lap and MacKenzie has her snuggly times too.

 

[Tucker's mommy]

All the comments about the lack of licking at a young age are dead-on. It seems like these furballs go from land shark to love bug overnight! And boy, is it a nice feeling when those behaviours start to show (seems like 7-8 months is a common time for this). I'm sure they will for you -but you have to suffer through those tough puppy moments, unfortunately! I still have a few scars on my hands! Give it time - it gets so much easier - and this is coming from a mom with three little people under 7!

 

[mylissyk]

Ok,

So my 9 week old little boy is bipolar, he is either sleeping and nice or hyper and destorying and biting everything. He chews on everything! I have taken the stuff he is not suppose to chew on away and replaced it with his toys probably a hundred times. He has a very poor attention span, and goes right back to my kids toys. He has chewed up some wires to my little girls innotab charger. When he is not sleepy all he wants to do is bite. You try to pet him and he bites, he knocked my 2 year old down to get her food jumping all over her acting as if he had never been fed before. I just need some help calming him. When it is just me and him, I can get him to listen, but when others are around he can be very stubborn. My wife is about to ship him out. He didn't have an accident in the house at all the first 5 days, now we find him running to the back and pooping in my daughters room. I crate him by our bed at night because he is going to kill himself in the crate if i put it anywhere away from us. I would like to crate during the day but he will literally bark for hours. We have every toy and chew imaginable. bully sticks, lamb sticks, pig ears, hard squeaky toys, plush toys, balls, everything. I work with him for periods of 15 minutes or so 3-4 times a day trying to train sit, down, come, off, and others. I can get him to sit for a split second with treats, down with treats only, come most of the time, off and leave it are a joke right now. i just gotta find a way for him not to bite humans, and to quit chewing on non doggy toys

I think you need to adjust your expectations too. He is just a baby, you can't expect him to be calm like an adult dog.

He is NOT house trained, you have months of repeating the house training routine before you can say he is reliably trained. Make your potty trips outside more frequent, at 9 weeks old he needs to be taken out every 20 to 30 minutes, or even less.

He has way too much freedom, yes you should be crating him more, any time you can not have both eyes on him he needs to be crated. You could also try leashing him to you so he can't run off to another part of the house. Or get a puppy pen if you want him to have more play room than the crate, and use it a lot.

Chewing on everything in his path is totally normal for a puppy, you just have to keep redirecting to toys he can chew on, and again crate or pen or leash to keep him in your sight or confined so he can't get to things he shouldn't.

Scroll through the Puppy Under 1 Year section of the board, there are hundreds of threads covering all of this that have great advice for working with puppies.