At my Wit's End

[Lindsey Holt]

Hi all,

Our family has a cute 10.5 month old Golden Doodle, named Jake.

He can be such a good dog... For my husband.

For me he steals stuff and will destroy it until I get it back.

If I ignore him he will destroy it. If I leash him and attach him to me or something else he just chews the leash.

I know he doesn't respect me as a pack leader and I don't know how to fix it. I make him wait before I put his foot down. I go through doors first.

I'm just at a loss. We hired trainers when he was about 6 months old (Bark Busters) and it got better over the next couple of months, but my husband has been gone on business for 2 weeks and it is now horrible again.

He was really good for the first 5 days and since then has been a monster. He literally walks around the house, the areas he is allowed in, and finds stuff to get into.

I just don't know what happened?

And I want to cry.

He has spent most of the day in his crate because every time I let him out he is into something.

He has been allowed in the back yard by himself (not for long... Just to go potty) for about a month now and was doing good. Today he was out there for 5 minutes and dug up the entire planter.

[Carrie Shepherd]

Oh no, my lab when he was a pup did this with us. He watched me plant flowers and when I went to work he dug them all up and he was pleased with himself. He grew out of his funny behavior at 2, best of luck to you and don't give up on him he's just being naughty.

[Angela Cheney]

I have a 10 month old labradoodle who is an angel. Except when he's not. Then he's an impossible, bratty, little teenager. My daughters Goldendoodles is 4 months older, so I'm very fortunate in getting to hear about what's ahead in terms of maturation. When her dog was 10 months old, she warned me about what was coming; now she tells me how much more mellow her dog is at 14 months. Our little adolescent does SO much better when he gets lots of exercise, and challenging toys to play with. Just like humans, bored teenagers are trouble!

[Anita Lee]

How much exercise is he getting? It sounds like he's not getting enough if he's constantly getting into trouble at home. Destructive behavior is not really about disrespect but more a way of keeping himself busy. Boredom + lack of supervision = bad behavior.

"He has spent most of the day in his crate because every time I let him out he is into something." This sounds like he's not getting enough activity.

My suggestion is to have a consistent schedule with him - if your husband walked him in the morning for an hour, do the same or substitute another activity worth an hour of walking. This will help your pup burn off his energy in a positive way. Training is all about showing your dog something better to do than whatever you don't want him to do.

Good luck!

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I hear your frustration.  Use a rope with a snap tied to it ( home depot) to tie him to you.  If he chews it up, no big deal.   Keep plenty of chewy toys and hand them out one at a time. ( have you tried Antlerz? - they saved my life with Tigger and still do actually).

The more you "play" with him, that is training him to sit, stay, down, stay, beg, roll over, heel or walk close on a leash - even in short stints in the yard or house, the more you become his pack leader.  Some dogs are easy, some are challenges.

Jake is testing his boundaries, put up firm ones and enforce them, it is not going to get easier.  Stop him before he when he is thinking about crossing the boundary, after he has dug up the plants it is too late.  Try lowering your voice for training and enforcement with short commands "leave it" for mouth and "off" for feet is what we use.  You treat/trick train this with a treat at his feet and he can't take it until you say okay, start farther away with your hand between the treat and Jake.  Gradually remove your hand, when he is perfect at that start moving the treat right to between his paws.

Keep your patience, Jake is going to be a puppy until he is about three.  Diligence now will give you a wonderful companion later. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I think you have already realized that your Doodle is not recognizing you as a leader.  When he's with you he has figured out that he can do whatever he wants.  Here's the best article I've ever found on how to change that.  It talks about leadership and the "nothing in life is free" approach that I have found to be so successful.  Let us know what you think and if you feel trying these strategies may help.  http://sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/alpha.htm.

[Laura and Angus]

I'm so sorry you're having such a tough time, but I know EXACTLY how you feel. We have a very hyper and stubborn doodle and it has taken a million years of training (or what has felt like that over the last 2 years) to make him into a well-mannered doodle with occasional naughtiness. 

There are several solutions to what I think is going on here:

1) Someone else mentioned leadership and it is clear that your doodle does not feel that you are a leader. To change this you'll definitely want to begin regular (and I mean daily) training activities that include you indicating your role as leader in the house. Making Jake sit and wait for food and to enter/exit any doors is crucial, blocking Jake from rushing/walking past you (physically putting your leg in front of him) in small spaces like doors/stairs/hallways will also indicate that you are in charge and you always go first. Do not ever let Jake outside of a door before you...you should always be stepping outside/inside first.

2) Address the energy situation. A tired doodle is a happy doodle. Generally doodles need time to run around like crazy each day. If you have a backyard (lucky!) then get out there with your doodle and play fetch or just run around and get your doodle running. We went the daycare route because we found that the best way to tire out our guy was to give him playtime. So if you can find a good daycare, that's a good way to go for a least a couple days a week OR schedule some puppy playdates because they wrestle around and will be tired and happy.

3) Sounds like you need to limit your doodle's access to unsupervised areas of the house. We have a 2+ year old goldendoodle and we still use gates/closed doors because if he's bored he'll tear papers and stuff up. Get some baby gates and shut doors. Also - with the leash biting, you may want to consider investing in an air spray canister to discourage that - we got one off amazon called the Pet Convincer 2 - whenever your pup touches the leash you say "No" calmly, wait a sec, and then a puff of air on their back hip. Alternatively, any time your pup is on the leash and calm/not biting you need to say "good boy!" and give treats. 

4) Mental stimulation. Doodles are very smart and need as much mental exercise as physical (arguably). Daily training sessions to teach new ideas/concepts are very tiring. For example, our trainer taught us to use the strategy of clicking and treating without any verbal commands to get our dog to do a desired activity - an example of this is when we put out a can and try to get him to touch it with his paw by just clicking and treating every time he gets closer to that behavior. By the end of those activities our pup is tired and panting because it's a real challenge! Practicing different commands - have you taught "place" yet? On top of the mental activity, regular training sessions with your pup is good for leadership training and bonding. 

Be firm and consistent, but do your best to remain calm. Stick with it! We have all been there and just know that your hard work with training will pay off. It definitely has for us and I didn't think I would ever be able to say that when our pup was your doodle's age.