Oh boy, nearing the "teething & adolescent" stage with my 5 mo goldendoodle. Tips & Recs for the following would be greatly appreciated.b

[calliney]

My goldendoodle is coming up on 5 months old. We've recently entered the teething stage and it seems she hitting the adolescent and "F You" I'm ganna do what I want even though I know it's not what you want phase.

I'm starting to provide a lot of frozen toys and bully sticks to help with the teething. She has a lot of boys that are on rotate every couple of days, swap out 3 or 4 of them. Enrichment toys, yada yada. This girl is spoiled. Currently has access to her "PlayPen" room. It's a blocked off side foye room with gates up on the entrances with her crate in there. She didn't take to an actual play pen so that room is hers. Then she has limited supervised access to the kitchen and dinning room with it blocked off for cat on the other side.

She's starting to bite and chew things that aren't her toys more so now. Especially when bored, mad at me, or when not supervised/being entertained by human. She was terrible as a puppy with entertaining herself but got better in the last month.

Anyhoo, starting to chew and bite at chairs, dinning room table, base boards, walls & corner, and starting to jump and scratch at the walls too. No negative reinforcement. I try and re direct to a toy, etc. Sometimes that works. If she's in the dinning room, then I'll put her in her play room to calm down. But then she starts to dig and bite at those walls.

Any one have tips or tricks, when you've exhausted your options? IE: stepped away yourself and let them calm down, gave distraction toy.

We haven't wanted to use the crate at a time out zone. Is that cruel? If read yes and no answers there.

I try and engage and or take on walk if I think she's amped up or take to the backyard. Issue with the backyard now is she's trying to dig up and eat the flower bed black cloth liner.

Ooo any tips there? We have a flower bed cloth liner that she's started to dig up and eat at. It's a big chunk of the yard. It's hard to keep her from doing that when off leash for play. Not sure how to stop that behavior.

 

[hard_to_get_by_right_now]

@calliney You do not have to use the crate as a time out punishment but it is a good tool to help an overtired, overexcited puppy calm down. You can put her in there when she’s over excited with treats. My puppy has 6 kongs. I freeze his food in there and you can also freeze treats like yogurt in there. You can give that to puppy in the crate. The chewing will help ease their gums and the frozen food helps soothe. It’ll give puppy a chance to calm down some

 

[calliney]

@hard_to_get_by_right_now I do the frozen kong and other frozen stuff already. I haven't been using the for calm down time though. May have to start that vs just using playpen room as cool down zone.

 

[hard_to_get_by_right_now]

@calliney Yeah, it might be too big of a space and too much for her to see and so she isn’t calming lol.

 

[hisholykingdom]

@calliney Welcome to the place my lab puppy has been in. Wear long sleeves and pants. Have lots of toys and chews ready.

Everyone will give all sorts of advice, "act like a tree," etc...every dog is different. My pup gets very wound up and mouthy so he goes into the crate with icy treats. It helps.him calm down and it gives me a moment to treat my puppy wounds...lol!

 

[calliney]

@hisholykingdom hah, I've been wearing yoga pants and tight clothing since Day 1 around my pup. I've got that covered.

I haven't wanted to use the crate for cool down time but I may have to resort to that if she's still too wound up in her designated play room.

 

[hisholykingdom]

@calliney I didnt want to either but its definitely created some harmony!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@calliney chew sticks. collagen, trachea, rawhide alternatives, etc. will be your best friends. they shouldn’t make up more than 10% of your pups calories per-day though. honestly, my pup doesn’t get much out of the whole “yelp and say ‘ow!’” thing. saying “ow” helps to an extent, but I have to redirect her to a toy or reanalyze and maybe send her to her crate when she’s overtired. it’s a trial-and-error process with the teething and adolescence stage. try to revert back to what you did with your dog when you first got them; for some that means tethering to their owner to prevent accidents (since some dogs regress with their potty training), for others that means always treating for recall again, the list goes on and on really.