I have a very smart 4 month old goldendoodle who loves getting into everything. She has no interest in her toys or chews. I’m at my wits end. She won’t respond to any correction or redirection. I puppy proofed tf out of my house but she still finds shit to get into. Idek where she gets some of the stuff she finds.
I can’t give her super flavorful bones because my beagle tries to fight her over them. That’s the only thing that has held her attention recently, but my beagle is a dick when it comes to bones.
I brought home like a dozen new toys yesterday but she doesn’t want them. She also doesn’t really care for treats when training. She’d just rather be called a good girl and get head pats.
My beagle isn’t nearly as smart as her, so it didn’t take much to stimulate him. Now he just wants to nap all the time lol.
Your dog wants love and attention, not distractions. That may change a bit as they get older but some dogs are just this way.
You need to exercise her before you try to get her attention. Those dogs have absolutely insane amounts of energy. Think about trying to get the attention of someone who just did 5 lines of pure Columbian cocaine, that’s what life is like for your puppy. Get a little backpack for her and put a couple of water bottles in it. Then go play catch at the park for 30-40 minutes. Or go for a run. Or put some roller blades on and let her pull you around (with a proper harness, not a collar). After one or more of those activities is the proper time to train her.
Have you considered separating the beagle and her while she gets to chew on a flavorful bone? Also, discipline the beagle. He needs to understand that he can’t just steal things from her. This isn’t anthropomorphism, dogs can learn not to steal from each other. Regardless, she should get some time to chew without worrying about defending herself. Chewing is a natural instinct for dogs, and it’s important they can satisfy that urge.
Have you tried the crinkle toys? One of our dogs loved the crinkle toys, and the other loved the squeaker toys.
Golden retrievers, and Golden Doodles are pretty insane when they’re young. It takes a lot of work to exercise and train them. The good news is that they settle down a lot in a year or two, and then they’re a lot easier to deal with. Despite the saying, you can reach an old dog new tricks, so there’s still time for training after she grows up a little.
I plan on breaking out a kiddie pool tonight and seeing if she’ll swim. I am also going to take her to the park when it cools off a bit. This week is going to be hot.
My dogs LOVE crinkle toys.
Do you have any suggestions on how to get my beagle to share bones?
The pool is a great idea! Most Doodles love water.
We trained our domineering dog not to steal from our smaller dog by sitting between them when they both got bones. When he would try to approach her we would push him back, point at his nose, and firmly say NO. Then we’d redirect him back to his bone, giving him lots of praise. As he started figuring it out we could just say his name in a scolding tone and he’d slink back over to his bone. Eventually he figured it out, and would just look longingly at her bone, despite having the same bone himself. Silly dog!
I will have to try that. I had to do the same thing you did with when teaching them that they each have a good bowl and they need to stay at that bowl to eat. They didn’t literally fight over food though. They just nudged each other away to get at the other’s bowl.
Oh, then he’s already gone through it once and should pick up on what you’re telling him pretty quickly. Best of luck! Well trained dogs are awesome dogs. The doodle will be a wild woman for awhile, but then she’ll settle down a bit.
Thank you! My beagle was an absolute madlad for the longest time. Once his anxiety got better, he calmed down a lot. He’s calmed down even more since I got the puppy. She wears him out so much lol.
Our boy was a total mutt who pretended to be really chill when we went to adopt him. He was chill for the first day and half at home too. But then he decided he’d fooled us enough and turned on his full crazy. He was completely untrainable for the first two years of his life, unless he was exhausted. So I’d go play catch with him using a ball launcher for an hour, then go home and work on stuff like sit and stay. He ended up being the most awesome dog ever once he got a little older. He pretty much understood plain English, and was very expressive and communicative. He was totally content with laying around and cuddling, but as soon as you said “let’s go”, it was like a switch, instant unlimited energy. He passed away a few months ago, but he lived a wonderful life, full of love and adventure.
First, scale back your expectations a bit. She is only 4 months old. You said she is crate trained and leash trained, if she also knows some commands like sit and come here you are on a very good pace. Around 4 moths is when you can start with the more advanced commands. Especially having her follow the “come here” command on a longer distance and while outside is going to be your big goal for now.
I would worry more about your beagle fighting over the bones. That’s something that needs fixing more so than your 4 old puppy behaving like a puppy.
From the sounds of it, she spends way too much time in her crate. You said she is there while you are at work and over night. If you work 8 hour shifts that’s 16 hours a day inside the crate. That’s way too long. At her age she isn’t even supposed to be in a crate for more than 4-5 hours straight and 8 hours in total should be the maximum for any dog. So when she gets out she really needs to burn energy. Just walking her isn’t going to be enough with that much time spent in a crate. So get that intensity up.
In the morning before you go to work you have her play fetch so she can run at full speed and tire herself out and in the afternoon after work you take her to a dog agility training course. Even better would be to eliminate one of the crate time and exchange it for time with a dog sitter or dog day care center.
I understand you are currently worried about your dogs due to the parasites and playing fetch with a dog that’s not fully trained yet is also dangerous. So maybe you will have to get active too and start jogging in the morning with them. Depending on your house maybe you can play fetch inside or build them a small obstacle course at home.
At the very least increase the size of the crate. Make it a fenced off part of your house. Just give them more space to play and move while locked up.
I’m planning on getting her a gigantic crate that I can turn into a playpen for her. I have my living room closed off with baby gates, but she figured out how to open the one. I gotta get a better latch for it. I hate how much my dogs are crated. I don’t have any dog daycares near me and the only person I know who agreed dogsit is my sister and she decided to not do it the first day she said she would. I work from home at least one day a week and they are out of their crates the whole time on those days.
I wake up two hours earlier than I need to in the mornings so the dogs can run and play. Mornings are their most intense playtime.
My house is kinda small, so indoor agility courses wouldn’t work. I found kits for outdoor courses online that look good.
It’s all so overwhelming. I got my beagle when he was 5 months and his biggest issue was his anxiety. He would act out when he got anxious. With work and medication he is very well behaved. Aside from resource guarding bones. I don’t give the dogs bones anymore. They share cow hooves though, which is great.
I did not expect my puppy to be so much trouble. My cousin owns the older brother of my puppy and that dog was never this much trouble. Super chill. Complete opposite of mine lol.
To help stimulate our dog when she was older, I got a kiddie pool and a several packs of plastic balls, like for a kid’s ball pit. Than hid treats in the pit for her to search. She loved it and it would keep her entertained even after all the snacks were found.
That’s an amazing idea omg.
Reward her with head pats and play if that’s what she’s into. Use classical conditioning to associate certain words with those rewards.
As for how to stimulate her, play with her. Wrestle and run around with her.
How many kilometers (or else measured in time) do you walk together every day?
We don’t currently go on walks due to parasites, but she and my beagle play outside for at least 2 hours a night and inside for at least another 2. She’s not getting mileage, but does laps around the house and the yard and wrestles with the beqgle
She needs the mileage. Really truly needs it. Take her somewhere walking where there aren’t other dogs as soon as your vet clears it. If your vet has cleared it already your own worry is not worth depriving her of this
My vet said that after her next dose of medicine, she should be good to go. She gets that in a few days. I’ll definitely take her somewhere nice to walk.
I’m somewhat surprised that no one has given you this answer yet, but it is the most effective one I know, from raising tens of dogs: Your dog needs more exercise; take her for a run or walk when she starts being stubborn. A well exercised dog is a compliant dog that learns and obeys.
The thing that saved my sanity when my hyper pit bull was that age was a laser pointer. Id stand in the backyard in the evening and he would chase it for like 60 minutes or more until he couldnt move his body.
Yeah, that’s kinda what happens with GDs. My shrink has one that’s 2yo that still does that stuff despite a ton of training and such. They eventually had to resort to a shock collar which kinda works for some things like barking, but she’ll still destroy stuff. .
If you have a fenced in back yard, I’d put her out there for a few hours to see if that helps things. Does she play fetch, because if so you can get an automatic ball launcher that they can drop the balls into. That was my suggestion that my shrink is trying out now.
But, in all honesty, every single person I’ve met who has a GD has deeply regretted their decision.
