My little angel is turning into a little devil...Please...Help!!

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

We have trained with Ollie all these months and got all the problem behaviors such as nipping and growling under control. The last 3 months with him were utter pleasure. He loves to please us and has been very responsive to verbal commands. Now at 6 months, it is like a light went on in his brain.

• He can reach the table and kitchen counters and he is constantly surfing to find food.
• He pulls things off of our bookshelf which was untouched all these months.
• He has not been using the crate at nights because he was sleeping very well in the family room and would wake up only after we did. This morning we woke up to some unsusal noise. We caught Ollie red-handed with a chewed up laptop. He literally took a chunk off the corner of the screen. Since we caught him in the act we got the piece out of his mouth and sent him for a little time out. After that he sulked for a while and wouldn't even look at us.
• he has again become very mouthy and bites a lot during play.
• He is barking at people and dogs a lot during our walks (he is not agressive but very barky)

Is it adolescence already? How do we deal with this? Bitter apple doesn't bother him. Squirting water/lemon juice in his mouth is no use...he loves it and wants more. 

We are using the leash and crate more around the house but is there anything else we can do? He gets plenty of exercise so that is not an issue. He is our first dog so any suggestions are welcome.

 

 

[Adina P]

What I would do is give him A LOT more confinement when he's unsupervised (tethering or crating him).  Some dogs just don't really REALIZE the potential fun they can have until this age or later. Rosco didn't learn to table surf (and he's TALL) till he was in his 4th year of life!  So ya never know. 

 

But essentially, RIGHT NOW, he's shown himself to be untrustworthy to make decisions on his own.  So his freedom must be restricted until he's matured and has had quite a bit of training to be reliable to commands.  Restricting his freedom is NOT about punishing him with confinement so he 'learns' he did bad.  It's more about being practical.  He WILL likely destroy things and possibly cause harm to himself (depending on what he chews/swallow) so because of this he can't have the freedom he once did.  This is OKAY.  He will NOT be traumatized by it.  Lots of dogs are crated their whole lives when they are not under some supervision. 

 

In the meantime I believe firmly that lots of work in obedience over the next several months...until he'll reliably do all his commands on command (without much 'reminder' or 'correction' or repetition of the command) is what ultimately makes the biggest difference.  A little extra exercise to tire him out can't hurt either.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

LIKE!!!!

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

Thank you. Taking your advice and dh has taken him for his second long walk of the day. His antics are amusing to us but tiring so I've been doing the tethering thing since yesterday...not out of any insight that I had but out of desperation. He is still my lovable doodle and melts my heart with his big doodle eyes after he's done something naughty.  Luckily he is used to his crate and loves it for the most part. Night time is the only problem. He will not stay in his crate at night. I need to start babyproofing for the 3rd time in 8 years! :-)

[Adina P]

You mean he has figured out how to unlatch his crate?  Or he whines and you let him out?

[Dot, Maggie and KoKo]

If there is any comfort in knowing you're not alone, here I am.  KoKo will be six months old next Tuesday.  She's never been mouthy but does bark, LOUDLY.  She also has discovered counter surfing (and I thought a mini GD would be too small to do this).  Her sisters never did this.  She chews everything in sight.  I've never cleared a room before for dogs or children  but if she can reach it she'll chew it.  She was spayed Tuesday and my biggest problem is keeping her quiet.  She adjusted well to the collar she's wearing - nothing seems to bother her.  Nothing...  I am just hoping that as she gets older she will quiet down the way Maggie and Rosie have.  I think we have at least another six months of this type behavior and then it will be in the past and forgotten.  Stay patient (and have a glass of wine).

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

Good to know that I am not alone. Thank you. Ollie came to us neutered so that won't be an issue hopefully. I just hope he outgrows some of this behavior. I like his antics for the most part but it gets exhausting. Glass of wine sounds perfect right about now :-)

[Gail+Kathleen,(Sydney+Olivia:)]

Oh, the challenges will continue as your Ollie matures.  Each year you will look back and smile at some of the things Ollie did which frustrated you.  Doodles are very intelligent and I think "they have our number" before "we have their number".  Doodles have much shorter life spans than we humans do, so they have to get all their experiences into a smaller time frame.  You may appreciate the experience I am having with one of my Doodles as I am now trying  to catch up on DK. Our Sydney Doodle (who is an adult at 6 years old and should act like one) is playing basketball with her little Kong Squeaker ball around the house.  She is bouncing the ball a few feet high over and over (her head goes up and down as she watches the ball) and she especially loves the loud noise the ball keeps making.  She enjoys bouncing the ball around the table where I am now sitting and trying to work).  She has been doing this for quite awhile now.  She knows that I think it's pretty amusing. So far I am not getting upset with her.  At least she is entertaining herself for a change!  Gotta love those DOODLES!!!

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

Ollie does the ball thing too. It is really funny to watch. I love that playful side of our doodles. I just hope he gets over the chewing, mouthing and barking.

[Taylor & Huff]

You can spray a combo of Viniger and water at him when you catch hime in the act. And crate him at night by tossing a treat in the crate. I hope this helps.:)

[Kyoko]

I always think "Prevention" vs. "Intervention". Meaning that we should prevent things from happenning rather than trying to correct. So, I am thinking use of baby gate, back to crating at night, limiting the accessible area for Ollie, etc.... So he will not be able to counter surf, nor get into things when unsupervised. I used to use really long sectional baby gate to separate the house / room, so Charlie was always in the area where she can be supervised... ( Like a toddler! ) I used the same gate to create octagone shape and used as ex-pen as well. It was really helpful to keep her out of trouble and also safe.

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

We have a baby gate to separate the formal living from the kitchen/family room. Unfortunately the combination room is too open to cordon off with a gate. But I know what you mean about prevention and I completely agree. Laptop where he could reach it was totally my fault. It never happened before so I got a little too laid back. I won't make that mistake again! All electronics are now out in a safe place. I'm just glad that he didn't get hurt.

[Karina]

I believe that a tired puppy is a good puppy. I made sure to give Rosie lots of morning exercise to leave her tired and asleep most of the day. We would always end up where she could fetch for at least 15 minutes. I arranged lots of play dates and we tried to go to fun dog places for guaranteed dog fun. Also, make sure you are the boss. I watched at least a year of the dog whisperer which helped me learn how dog dynamics work and I grateful because I understand my Rosie better because of it. Part of it is of course patience, i learned lots of that. It is important to stay consistent and give them safe things to chew on.