Hi all, I’m new here. I’ve spent many a late night hour deep diving into posts and advice on this forum, so thank you to all you strangers who share here. You have brought me a lot of solace, and a lot of laughs (and tips).
Rusty came home three weeks ago, and he is 11 weeks old.
Rusty is a menace.
Rusty is a big boy, and he has trouble controlling his body when he runs around indoors. His paws need constant stimulation, and that often results in large scratch marks across my entire body.
Rusty chews up everything in sight (yard and house were heading towards total destruction status after week 1) and is a kleptomaniac with socks and underwear. Yesterday, while on a walk, I found a piece of my underwear torn up in a yard 10 houses down from mine. He must have carried it hidden in his mouth during another walk and secretly dropped it there(?!). Poor neighbor probably thought something very not okay happened in the night on their lawn.
Rusty eats extremely fast, I didn’t have time to sit down for my own breakfast our first week with him. I don’t have much time for anything non-Rusty right now.
Socially, Rusty is… interesting. With humans who are strangers, he lunges and playfully nips at their body. With other dogs, he hides under my legs and whimpers. With me, he can’t be left to do anything independently.
About 5-10 times a day, Rusty looks up at me as if he possessed and lunges forward and latches onto my clothing or body and clamps his shark teeth down. I fight back tears and try hard not to scream out and rile him up further. I spent the first week and a half reasoning with my boyfriend that Rusty will surely “grow out of it” and that “positive affirmation is the only way to handle biting”. I had a long hard (crying) look in the mirror day 10 - after a particularly bad night walk where Rusty bit me three times and I was bleeding -and in a bout of self pity, I decided I was a failure as a mother and crumbled into the bath to nurse my wounds.
Rusty doesn’t crash, he would continue running around 24 hours if left to his own devices. Cute late night cuddling on the couch with my little fluff ball son? Yeah right.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably shaking your head right about now. If you’re not, you should be.
Rusty is a puppy. And puppies are often menaces.
Yeah, he’s a big boy. Rusty has the cutest big bear paws. He loves using them to scratch at new surfaces and hold down toys or sticks. It’s my responsibility to help guide him and his big paws towards the right places and things, and away from the wrong. He’s an inquisitive baby boy learning how to move, he’s incredibly athletic, and it’s amazing watching him figure out how to climb and jump (he falls a lot, I panic that he’s hurt, but he gets right up with his tail wagging and on to the next adventure).
I have now designated a comfy and open “place” in the house that’s his. I am gently yet assuredly moving him back to there whenever he needs it while inside. Sometimes meaning 50 times a day. Yeah, I don’t take my eyes off of him now when he’s out of the crate. He always gets a treat when he lands in his place. Lil baby boy gets a small treat whenever he so much as lays down by himself calmly.
To prevent major destruction, and to help him figure out boundaries, I now have him on a leash at all times (inside too, even when he’s just sitting with a Kong or walking around on his own - the leash drags behind him). He hated it for a day, he forgot the leash existed the next day. Now he loves when I put it on when he gets out of his crate, because he sits as I do it and he gets a treat. Oh how toddler brains work.
On that note, it seems that with Rusty’s bigger than average body, comes a bigger than average brain. Yes, he chews, he steals, he hides things. But none of this is malicious. Goldens are so smart, it’s actually insanely cool to be around when they’re puppies.
He knows how to open my clothing drawers, sort through them with his nose to locate my socks and underwear, and then hide them elsewhere. For now, this just means I have a puppy who loves puzzles and needs challenges to replicate that kind of excitement. Daily. Which is a great thing.
Forget the 20 little squeaky and cute fluffy puppy toys I ordered for him before his arrival. I’ve now replaced them with a variety of puzzle toys that require him to problem solve to find food and treats. He loves kong-type chew toys, and I’m upping daily training a lot to replace some of the unstructured roaming time (he gets bored fast). Bring on hide and seek and anything that requires him to use his nose or fetch. I can’t wait to see him in action retrieving as a bigger dog.
Yeah, Rusty could set the world record for fastest eater. The boy likes his food! Can’t blame him. However, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Rusty now has to earn his food.
He likes it better this way, and I like it better this way.
He spends 10 minutes (argh, now it’s more like 5 since he figured the puzzle feeder out so fast) getting half his meal from a puzzle. Then the other half comes from focused training and our walks together. A bonus perk is that the second I put the puzzle down, I can sprint to the kitchen and scarf down some food and a coffee so I’m not as grouchy as I was his first week here.
Yeah, Rusty needs my help socially. Just as I sure as h*** needed help socially during my adolescence. It’s my job to read his body language, react appropriately, and adjust socialization time to make sure I am exposing him to the right people / sounds/ places / other dogs, at the right times, and with the right approach. Will I do this perfectly? No way. But I know he will work with me and help me to help him. He’s such a loving and friendly pup, he needs my focused attention and patience as he explores the world.
As for the shark teeth. Ah, the infamous baby shark teeth. They are not fun. No skirting around that. After my self-pity bath, I put some ointment on the bites and reminded myself that I should NOT feel scared or out of control of Rusty, and that I am not a terrible mother. He deserves an upbringing full of love. I want nothing more than to give him that. But I can’t give him that if I’m allowing him to lunge and bite at me, and not teaching him that such behavior is absolutely unacceptable.
Personally, it’s now a hard no for me. No replacing a skin bite with a toy, no turning my back only to feel the teeth dig into my calf, no cowering in pure terror when it’s dark out and he has zoomies at 9pm and decides to come barreling, no putting my hands gently on his snout only to release and get bit again (he sees that as a game, not his fault!). It’s now - and will moving forward continue to be - a stern but calm “NO BITE” and immediate 20-30 second time out where I leave his sight.
When he’s calm and out from that break, we quickly transition to a command he knows well (sit) and of course an immediate treat celebrating his calmness and positive behavior. I am already sensing a shift in his behavior on this front. And no, he does not act scared of me after his time out, he wags his tail and seems excited to do a command that he feels confident in.
I am not a dog trainer, nor an expert. But personally I have to lay down some hard lines in the sand with Rusty. No biting is one of them. I do this not to punish him, but to guide him and set us on course for a healthy, loving and functioning relationship as a dog and dog owner.
Finally, it appears I have a golden baby that can’t self soothe yet. Is that his fault? Of course not. Is that even a fault!? No! Selfishly, of course we all dream of laying on the couch after a day of nonstop training and feeding and walking and cleaning (and repeating) only to have our worn out sleepy nugget curl into sleep on our chest.
Some of you jerks get that, and yeah I’m very jealous (just kidding, about the jerk part). Some get a puppy with a smaller bladder, meaning you’re up multiple times in the night as a zombie heading out to the yard. I got a dog that from night one could sleep in the crate from 11pm to 6:30am and has a total of 3 indoor accidents (my fault). I count my blessings there. Sleep deprived golden puppy parents, please call me a jerk right now in your heads. We all need an outlet 😂.
Yeah, so my Rusty doesn’t self soothe. I have to adjust to that appropriately. I have a new set nap schedule every day. He doesn’t seem tired, but I put him down and hope for the best.
Call me crazy, but I caved and got a little $30 camera I put looking down at his crate. I watched it for the first time the other night.
My worry dissipated immediately.
He collapsed into sleep right after the lights were turned off, nuzzling into his little bear toy I thought he hated and curling into an adorable fluff ball with his tongue half out. I sat on the couch and watched it as he turned onto his back, his paws sticking up, and I teared up. I have such a sweet, cuddly boy. He just isn’t ready yet to be like that with me. I know one day he will be.
Here is Rusty sleeping like a baby and my boyfriend probably yelling at me around midnight last night to go to bed and stop crying watching the puppy camera:
The moral of the story here? There are solutions to every challenge my little rascal throws at me. He’s not actually throwing anything at me (other than his body), he’s just being a puppy. Many of the solutions are exhausting, require compromise and adjustments, and are going to take a lot of diligence and repetition to actually stick. What an exciting adventure.
My golden puppy is an absolute menace. And I love him. I wish you all the very very best with your own pups ❤
Rusty came home three weeks ago, and he is 11 weeks old.
Rusty is a menace.
Rusty is a big boy, and he has trouble controlling his body when he runs around indoors. His paws need constant stimulation, and that often results in large scratch marks across my entire body.
Rusty chews up everything in sight (yard and house were heading towards total destruction status after week 1) and is a kleptomaniac with socks and underwear. Yesterday, while on a walk, I found a piece of my underwear torn up in a yard 10 houses down from mine. He must have carried it hidden in his mouth during another walk and secretly dropped it there(?!). Poor neighbor probably thought something very not okay happened in the night on their lawn.
Rusty eats extremely fast, I didn’t have time to sit down for my own breakfast our first week with him. I don’t have much time for anything non-Rusty right now.
Socially, Rusty is… interesting. With humans who are strangers, he lunges and playfully nips at their body. With other dogs, he hides under my legs and whimpers. With me, he can’t be left to do anything independently.
About 5-10 times a day, Rusty looks up at me as if he possessed and lunges forward and latches onto my clothing or body and clamps his shark teeth down. I fight back tears and try hard not to scream out and rile him up further. I spent the first week and a half reasoning with my boyfriend that Rusty will surely “grow out of it” and that “positive affirmation is the only way to handle biting”. I had a long hard (crying) look in the mirror day 10 - after a particularly bad night walk where Rusty bit me three times and I was bleeding -and in a bout of self pity, I decided I was a failure as a mother and crumbled into the bath to nurse my wounds.
Rusty doesn’t crash, he would continue running around 24 hours if left to his own devices. Cute late night cuddling on the couch with my little fluff ball son? Yeah right.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably shaking your head right about now. If you’re not, you should be.
Rusty is a puppy. And puppies are often menaces.
Yeah, he’s a big boy. Rusty has the cutest big bear paws. He loves using them to scratch at new surfaces and hold down toys or sticks. It’s my responsibility to help guide him and his big paws towards the right places and things, and away from the wrong. He’s an inquisitive baby boy learning how to move, he’s incredibly athletic, and it’s amazing watching him figure out how to climb and jump (he falls a lot, I panic that he’s hurt, but he gets right up with his tail wagging and on to the next adventure).
I have now designated a comfy and open “place” in the house that’s his. I am gently yet assuredly moving him back to there whenever he needs it while inside. Sometimes meaning 50 times a day. Yeah, I don’t take my eyes off of him now when he’s out of the crate. He always gets a treat when he lands in his place. Lil baby boy gets a small treat whenever he so much as lays down by himself calmly.
To prevent major destruction, and to help him figure out boundaries, I now have him on a leash at all times (inside too, even when he’s just sitting with a Kong or walking around on his own - the leash drags behind him). He hated it for a day, he forgot the leash existed the next day. Now he loves when I put it on when he gets out of his crate, because he sits as I do it and he gets a treat. Oh how toddler brains work.
On that note, it seems that with Rusty’s bigger than average body, comes a bigger than average brain. Yes, he chews, he steals, he hides things. But none of this is malicious. Goldens are so smart, it’s actually insanely cool to be around when they’re puppies.
He knows how to open my clothing drawers, sort through them with his nose to locate my socks and underwear, and then hide them elsewhere. For now, this just means I have a puppy who loves puzzles and needs challenges to replicate that kind of excitement. Daily. Which is a great thing.
Forget the 20 little squeaky and cute fluffy puppy toys I ordered for him before his arrival. I’ve now replaced them with a variety of puzzle toys that require him to problem solve to find food and treats. He loves kong-type chew toys, and I’m upping daily training a lot to replace some of the unstructured roaming time (he gets bored fast). Bring on hide and seek and anything that requires him to use his nose or fetch. I can’t wait to see him in action retrieving as a bigger dog.
Yeah, Rusty could set the world record for fastest eater. The boy likes his food! Can’t blame him. However, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Rusty now has to earn his food.
He likes it better this way, and I like it better this way.
He spends 10 minutes (argh, now it’s more like 5 since he figured the puzzle feeder out so fast) getting half his meal from a puzzle. Then the other half comes from focused training and our walks together. A bonus perk is that the second I put the puzzle down, I can sprint to the kitchen and scarf down some food and a coffee so I’m not as grouchy as I was his first week here.
Yeah, Rusty needs my help socially. Just as I sure as h*** needed help socially during my adolescence. It’s my job to read his body language, react appropriately, and adjust socialization time to make sure I am exposing him to the right people / sounds/ places / other dogs, at the right times, and with the right approach. Will I do this perfectly? No way. But I know he will work with me and help me to help him. He’s such a loving and friendly pup, he needs my focused attention and patience as he explores the world.
As for the shark teeth. Ah, the infamous baby shark teeth. They are not fun. No skirting around that. After my self-pity bath, I put some ointment on the bites and reminded myself that I should NOT feel scared or out of control of Rusty, and that I am not a terrible mother. He deserves an upbringing full of love. I want nothing more than to give him that. But I can’t give him that if I’m allowing him to lunge and bite at me, and not teaching him that such behavior is absolutely unacceptable.
Personally, it’s now a hard no for me. No replacing a skin bite with a toy, no turning my back only to feel the teeth dig into my calf, no cowering in pure terror when it’s dark out and he has zoomies at 9pm and decides to come barreling, no putting my hands gently on his snout only to release and get bit again (he sees that as a game, not his fault!). It’s now - and will moving forward continue to be - a stern but calm “NO BITE” and immediate 20-30 second time out where I leave his sight.
When he’s calm and out from that break, we quickly transition to a command he knows well (sit) and of course an immediate treat celebrating his calmness and positive behavior. I am already sensing a shift in his behavior on this front. And no, he does not act scared of me after his time out, he wags his tail and seems excited to do a command that he feels confident in.
I am not a dog trainer, nor an expert. But personally I have to lay down some hard lines in the sand with Rusty. No biting is one of them. I do this not to punish him, but to guide him and set us on course for a healthy, loving and functioning relationship as a dog and dog owner.
Finally, it appears I have a golden baby that can’t self soothe yet. Is that his fault? Of course not. Is that even a fault!? No! Selfishly, of course we all dream of laying on the couch after a day of nonstop training and feeding and walking and cleaning (and repeating) only to have our worn out sleepy nugget curl into sleep on our chest.
Some of you jerks get that, and yeah I’m very jealous (just kidding, about the jerk part). Some get a puppy with a smaller bladder, meaning you’re up multiple times in the night as a zombie heading out to the yard. I got a dog that from night one could sleep in the crate from 11pm to 6:30am and has a total of 3 indoor accidents (my fault). I count my blessings there. Sleep deprived golden puppy parents, please call me a jerk right now in your heads. We all need an outlet 😂.
Yeah, so my Rusty doesn’t self soothe. I have to adjust to that appropriately. I have a new set nap schedule every day. He doesn’t seem tired, but I put him down and hope for the best.
Call me crazy, but I caved and got a little $30 camera I put looking down at his crate. I watched it for the first time the other night.
My worry dissipated immediately.
He collapsed into sleep right after the lights were turned off, nuzzling into his little bear toy I thought he hated and curling into an adorable fluff ball with his tongue half out. I sat on the couch and watched it as he turned onto his back, his paws sticking up, and I teared up. I have such a sweet, cuddly boy. He just isn’t ready yet to be like that with me. I know one day he will be.
Here is Rusty sleeping like a baby and my boyfriend probably yelling at me around midnight last night to go to bed and stop crying watching the puppy camera:
The moral of the story here? There are solutions to every challenge my little rascal throws at me. He’s not actually throwing anything at me (other than his body), he’s just being a puppy. Many of the solutions are exhausting, require compromise and adjustments, and are going to take a lot of diligence and repetition to actually stick. What an exciting adventure.
My golden puppy is an absolute menace. And I love him. I wish you all the very very best with your own pups ❤