Our golden retriever is 10 months old and while he is a good natured dog, when he becomes excited, or especially when he is looking for attention he jumps up and tries to bite. When people are talking around him he often tries to interrupt with biting with what seems like he is trying to get attention. We always immediately place a muzzle on him when this happens, have tried walking away from him, have tried making loud noises, and many of the other ideas we have read about. This is not our first retriever and we had none of these issues with out first one who lived for 11 years. I think the first one wouldn't have even known how to bite. That one came from the U.K. and was bred for show, while the most recent one is U.S. born and of a different nature and tends to have a high energy level which we try and reduce through long walks and runs. Looking for help on stopping this inappropriate biting action. The dog was nutered at 8 months and at that time we were hoping that some of this behavior would be at least reduced from that change. We are looking for advice on what can be effective in correcting this kind of behavior. Other than this biting issue the dog has been easy to train with commands, and generally walks well and does not show any other signs of agression toward us.

 

I've had good luck with a couple dogs who liked to bite my hand when being petted by sticking my whole hand into their mouth - in other words, pushing the hand in further rather than pulling it out.

They don't like that and quit biting as a result.

 

Have you established the "good dog", "bad dog" commands. Whatever words you have chosen need to be consistently applied and even a reward or praise can be added to the good behavior.

When bad dog is applied for bad behavior there should be a definite cowering reaction that indicates he does understand his actions were wrong. Sit, stay and other training will reinforce his compliance and enhance both of your living qualities.

Sundance was our golden for 17 wonderful years.

Bud

 

Thanks guys. We have established the good dog bad dog commands with him, but I think one of the problems we are having is that he may have been the Alpha of the litter and he has not yet had enough reinforcement through our behavior to understand that we are now the lead dogs of his pack. This is probably due to the fact of spending so many years with our former dog who was well trained, and clearly knew his place in the family pack to the point where we could allow him some priviledge that a young dogs really shouldn't be granted.