[Kimmadden]

Milo is getting on really well.

He is 9 weeks old today. Milo already goes by the back door when wanting a wee and only wee's on inside at night but obviously that's understandable as it's can be 7 hours before we let him out. We started off crate training but as we both work I felt awful leaving him in his crate so he is now in the kitchen with a stair gate with a bed so he can sleep but wonder round for leg space and play.

My only concern is he love to bite us. This can be during play with a toy or even if you are trying to stroke him. I really don't like it I'm not going to lie!

At the moment we do a 'ah-ah' he stops for few seconds and then tries to start agin. Should I stop him? My feeling at the moment is if I don't stop him now how can I in a few months time when he is bigger? Iv heard things like clapping hands, pushing nose down, biting their eat etc ..... But I don't know really what's best?! But I obviously want to be consistent.

Thank you :wavey:

 

[CRS250]

This is part of why we call them landsharks. It is normal and natural that a golden retriever puppy explores the world with their mouth, including your skin. The idea of 'discipline' for a puppy of this age is misplaced. The animal does not need discipline, it needs to be shown what you want it to do instead. Biting you and your family is a sign the puppy is comfortable with you as its family and it is important that this happens for the puppy to learn good bite inhibition. If the dog does not learn this and is startled later in life, someone steps on his tail or paw etc. Then rather than a nip that doesnt break the skin the dog can bite too forcible in that moment of panic and hurt you or someone in your family. This biting/nipping will continue for several weeks and you will find many, many posts here from other owners who have this frustration. Figure if you are active and work with your dog often that it will last till 15 or 16 weeks of age. If you are passive and less active in training/redirecting, 20 weeks.

The best advice I can give as a fellow golden owner is to have plenty of appropriate toys to redirect the puppy onto, interesting textures, different flavors, toys with squeakers, ropes, etc. If the puppy refuses to be redirected to the toy then get up and walk away, turn your back on the puppy and ignore it. If(or rather when) this fails to work, use a brief time out to give the puppy a change in mind set. We put our puppy in a puppy-safe bathroom for 10 - 15 seconds when this happens. When we open the door we ask for a sit and give a treat. Then back to whatever toy we wanted her to play with.

Again with everything you dont want the dog to do the important point to remember is making the behavior you DO want more attractive to a dog than the bad behavior. Disciplining a dog for being a dog is pointless and will only leave you and the dog unhappy.

 

[inge]

Biting their ear? How on earth would you do that? Sorry, I try to picture you biting your puppy's ear while he is biting you...
No, the biting is his way to find out about the world around him and communicating with you. Of course he needs to learn that it is not acceptable, but he is a baby, only nine weeks old. I don't know if you have surfed the puppy board, there are a lot of people who are in the same boat as you, so your puppy is being a normal puppy. Keep a lot of toys around you and put one in his mouth when he tries to bite. I always told my girls 'no bite' and gave them something appropriate. In time, they will get the message, but golden puppies are called 'landsharks' for a reason, I'm afraid....

 

[cgriffin]

What got me is that you mentioned it might be 7 hours at night before you let him out? Is he sleeping in a crate at night? If he pees in the crate at night, he will need to go out at least once during the night. You cannot expect a 9 week old puppy to be locked up for 7 hours.

Ear biting? Seriously? I think not!!!

Like others said, this is normal puppy behavior and you need to redirect when he bites and nips. Always have a toy or chew toy handy to redirect his attention. You can also 'yelp' or make a high pitch noise when the teeth come to let him know he is hurting you. Pups need to learn bite inhibition.
Keep making yelping sounds and say : no biting mom/dad. It worked on my pup, he is almost five months old and out of the nipping and biting stage.

Hang in there, it will get better, first it will get worse with the teething though, then it will get better. For teething, keep nylabones, busy bones, bully sticks on hand - if you have those available that is.

 

[Kimmadden]

Thank you for the replies.

No he isn't locked in a crate all night. He has his crate in the kitchen with the door open. He has a pad just outside it and he wees on that once in the night. We started off by getting up every three hours and letting him out but he was so sleepy he wouldn't go but he is quite happy coming out on his pad then going back to bed. My other golden did this as well until he could go all night and then we took the pad away and he would be happy to go 6/7 hours later.

As for the ear biting Iv never done it or would want to, I was just listing things people have told me as a 'solution' so wanted other peoples opinions.

We do replace it with a toy but tends to move up the toy to our hands aha.
If what we are doing is the norm then il persist.

Thanks for your help

 

[gill03]

Hi Kim

I would also agree with the popping a toy into his mouth - every time.
It takes a while but they do catch on, Shelby will now run to get a toy to greet us as we put a toy in her mouth so many times!
We also say no biting and if she gets carried away now we just need to say those words and she stops (with me anyway, my partner used to play rougher play with her so it took alot longer to learn with him. His own fault might I add!).
Although it isnt half as bad having rounded large teeth on your hand than it is having tiny pointy teeth and its actually good that we know she doesnt bite down hard like she used to!
We found that saying ow or yelping actually made her worse but I think that I have read that this works for some people?
Another thing that worked for us is having an antler and also nylabones (we bought ours from pets at home) as puppys do need to chew on something. We certainly think this is one of the reasons why Shelby has never tried to chew our furniture, skirting boards or walls as shes always been encouraged to chew these. She was always supervised when chewing on them though.

Shelby also went around 7 hours (in her crate!) during the night from around 10.30 - 5 - 5.30. If we heard her cry during the night (which was very very rare) we would get up to let her out but we didnt actively get up to take her out and she was fab with housetraining. I must add that she loved her crate from day one and often takes herself off in there during the day for a little 'me' time.

It will get better but I'm sure you will know this if you have had a golden before

 

[Pandy]

hey there I was wondering if you have ever heard of the potty training puppy apartment? it gives your puppy a area in the crate where they can go on the potty pads but they also have a separate room where they can sleep.

This is what we bought and are planning to use on our puppy when he arrives.

Modern Puppies - Potty Training a Puppy

however the price for the xlarge crate is quite high, so another option you can do that I've seen someone do before is take a piece of plywood and cut a square in it. The measurements for the hole on our crate is 15" by "16 and you can use that to divide the crate leaving the potty part larger. Then just add a potty pad and it should help with the crate training process. However you should still start off slow with it.

also you can try a frozen dog toy like chilly bones and there are some really good dog toys out there for chewing like zogoflex hurley. You can also try to distract your puppy in the crate by giving him IQ toys like kyjen hide a squirrel or the kong wobbler which you can find on amazon.

 

[cgriffin]

I am glad you are enjoying your puppy and you are not actually biting his ear, LOL.

I don't want to be a downer, but pee pads only prolong the potty training. Just my humble opinion.

 

[gill03]

I am glad you are enjoying your puppy and you are not actually biting his ear, LOL.

I don't want to be a downer, but pee pads only prolong the potty training. Just my humble opinion.

Totally agree with this.

We used them thinking it would help and it was only after a couple of weeks of wet pads and still having to clean the crate area anyway that I took them up...she has never pee'd there again!