Fun but oh so tough...limit testing period...

[Marion Kirchner]

Hello everyone,

my Goldendoodle puppy Robin is now almost 10 weeks old. We have him since one week. I'm seriously proud of the little guy, because believe it or not...after the first day we didn't have a single poop incident! He still has the odd pee incident here and there, but since two days he even started walking towards the garden door before he has to pee, so that we know. (I gotta admit though that at first we missed that...*lol*) Also our little man already listens to "sit" and most of the time to "no".

On the other hand though he is now totally into the "I test my limits" period. It started about 3 days ago. Especially after I took him back inside after playing in the garden he goes totally wild and runs through the house like a complete maniac. Then he doesn't listen to "no" anymore. He tries to jump on the couch and even if you put him down and tell him no several times he refuses to listen. Yesterday he started biting into my socks. So much that I jumped up and made clear how much it hurt and stopped the game. Today he did it again though. I did the same thing, but I'm not sure if he understood it. He also jumps at people and snatches clothes. Once he got hold of them...well I gotta admit he doesn't understand drop yet...
These freak out periods sometimes stop if you simply ignore him. But you can't always ignore what he does, right?
Today though he freaked out so much that we actually left the room and then gave him something special to chew on, which calmed him down. (even his favorite toys can't keep his interest for longer than 10 seconds during these moments)

I have no idea though if this is always normal or if there's a better way to calm him down a little. Also...how long will this last? My mom was a little upset today because she's scared he will really start biting instead of just snapping.

We already called a dog trainer who will visit us in to days for a talk and then we will see if we'll visit his dog school with our Robin. But it's still always good to hear some comments from other doodle owners.

Greetings
Marion

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

This is so normal for a puppy. He is getting more familiar with your house and you and testing the boundaries. Very normal. The puppy biting seems like it goes on forever, but it doesn't. My best advice is to stay consistent, so Robin knows what is expected of him. Also, bully sticks were what got me through the puppy stages.

[Jessica & Lucie]

Your stories definitely brought me back to the puppy days, however I definitely miss those special days sometimes. My advice is to keep everything in perspective, puppies like children kind of run on autopilot, when they feel like they have too much energy they just do whatever they can to get it out and get your attention. Thankfully it is only temporary. Lucie definitely exhibited the behaviors you described, having a consistent response will help to keep you sane, but they are inevitable to some degree. Just the other day at 17 months Lucie had a crazy few minutes outside in the woods, the water makes her turn into a puppy again.

I believe I survived the puppy days with lots and lots of exercise/playing/outside time. A tired puppy is a well behaved puppy even if it is only temporary.

[BG and Gavin]

Totally typical. I remember those running around like a madman days! It does not last long Keep him busy, keep his mouth busy and utilize what others have said. I rember in particular Gavin was awful every night around 8pm. We called it the "witching hour." I think it may be a rite of passage for the owner. Hang it there.

[Marion Kirchner]

Thanks a lot for your answers everyone :)
I started to leave the room for about two minutes for the crazytime today. I put him the hallway and did something else in the living room. The living room door has a big window, so he can see what I'm doing too. Sometimes if he gets his wild moments I also go outside (ie the terrace) and clean up some stuff til he is calm again. It has worked quite well the last two days.

We had a dog trainer coming over today and it was incredible how easily you could calm him with a couple of treats and a little training. I only started training when I already saw he was relatively calm because I believed he couldn't focus during these crazy moments, but he did really well today. It's amazing how a few tiny tips can change everything. (for instance it's now no problem to dry him up after he was outside when you keep him occupied with something else...he used to bite into the towel and drag it around the entire room *lol* but now I managed to get him dry without much work twice in a row!)

Also brushing him worked quite well today. Whenever he started to get interested in the brush I made him take a look at his favorite toy and he stayed calm so that today I could brush almost his entire body without him moving around. *is so proud of her little man*

[Laura Deutsch]

consider yourself lucky. Molly is 6 months and still bonkers!!!!! She does have some quiet moments, but they are not the norm once she's out of the kitchen. Thank goodness for crate training. We are not timing her out when she bites our 12 year old docile golden, who has always been the exact opposite of Molly. Sometimes when we're out walking, she will all of a sudden go into the puppy zanies for no apparent reason. She still bites, although it doesn't hurt like it did. She's still getting her adult teeth in. We work on it alot. We do alot of training. she has endless energy. She's definitely the type of dog that would have done better in a stay at home family, rather than two full time working people. She's our first difficult dog, but she's also adorable, funny, high spirited, fun loving , friendly and loves training. We just have to hang in there. Are there any others of you that have 6 month olds that are still wild children? I need some support!!!!
(can you tell?????)

[Marion Kirchner]

Oh today he had a major crazy moment...We were in the garden and I picked up one of his toys and while I did this he came running towards me and jumped at me and hit my ear pretty heavily. *ouch* I was shocked. I had to leave him alone for about 15 minutes til he calmed down bc he just totally ignored me in his crazyiness. In the process he picked a couple of paper napkins from the table and ripped them apart, spreading them across the room. *sigh* oh well, he calmed down now. At the moment I don't feel like playing with toys in the garden anymore *sigh*