Harder than we thought!

[Amy & Cosmo]

This is day 6 with our new labradoodle, Cosmo, and we are exhausted. We picked him up last Friday and by Sunday were thinking we made a mistake. We have had 2 puppies before- but none as crazy as this little boy. He chews everything. We are having to stay with him at all times. I'm not sure how potty training is going bc we are relentless with taking him out. After several accidents the first couple of days I swoop him up anytime he sniffs.
I must say he is super cute and very sweet when he is tired and therefore not biting us. We are trying to be very patient, but sometimes we get frustrated ( like when he repeatedly goes through the fence to try and get in the koi pond- over, and over, and over)- well, you get the point.
I am hoping and praying his behavior improves so he becomes that awesome addition to our family we were dreaming of!

[Midge and Gracie]

How is little Cosmo doing.  Honestly it gets better and better.  Hope all is well.

[Amy & Cosmo]

Cosmo is doing better in some regards, but the biting is still driving us crazy. We are going to start him in a puppy class in the next week or two, and we hope this will give us the help we need. I really feel he just needs some time with other dogs...so I am trying to set up some play dates now that he is done with his shots. We just want to be able to bond with him, but that has been hard so far (esp for my 5 yo daughter).

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Puppy class and any playdates you can set up will help so much.  We definitely found that once Rooney got more rough and tumble dog play time, he was much better with humans.  In fact, we recently went away on vacation and left Rooney with an outstanding pet nanny for a week.  He was about 16 weeks old at the time.  He got tons of socialization time with her, with both dogs and people, and he came home practically a different dog.  He had grown up so much and all of the biting and nipping had virtually disappeared.  It was quite shocking.  I think he learned a lot during that week from all of his exposure to other dogs. Don't get me wrong, he's still a puppy but that week of lots of doggy time really did him good.

Get in that puppy class as soon as possible and see if they offer any puppy playtimes in addition to the class time.  Many of the obedience schools in our area now offer puppy playtime as a separate option just to allow puppies to burn some energy in a safe environment with other vaccinated dogs.

Hang in there!  Rooney is now 18 weeks and SOOO much easier!