Dog Forum Message Board

My 9 month old male doodle (he is fixed) is driving me insane...right this minute actually. He never settles...ever. He is walked 4 miles daily and runs around our fenced in yard on top of that. Despite this, he never leaves me or my husband alone. He barks at us, mouths us, and just needs to be literally on top of us constantly. Even at bedtime, as we try to put him to bed on the floor next to our bed, he flips out barking for 10 minutes until we have to force him to lay down and then he will sleep through the night. We are starting to think he has some type of problem....separation anxiety or unusually high energy levels? He is fully housebroken, is crated during the day, has no accidents in the house or crate, knows several commands, and is well-behaved out of the house and on the leash, but at home he is a monster towards us. Is this normal 9 month old behavior? I've had a Pug and my husband an american eskimo and don't remember them behaving this badly at this age. Please, any help would be much appreciated as we are at our breaking points. We have of course been training him from day one, but the barking and mouthing has gotten worse in the past 2 months, during what we know is the height of "dog puberty", but any advice would be extremely helpful to us! Thanks so much!

I have a 9 month old English Creme Golden and he's nothing like that. Contact the breeder! I fostered a Golden Retriever who couldn't settle. He was great in obedience class so people thought I was nuts but my friends and family knew 'cause they saw he needed 24/7 attention. No one wanted to be around him, not the kids not my other golden. It was a godsend when a home was found where he could run in and out of house on his whim and had several other high energy dogs to play with, last I heard he had picked up the habit of chewing rocks from one of their other dogs, YIKES. Sometimes it's not the right match. Don't beat yourself up like I did. After him and bad allergies from my sweet adopted golden we knew we had to use a high quality breeder, meet the sire and dam and check clearances. Our dog has blown us away with how he can settle even when we know he's overdue for exercise and playtime. Good news, next time you'll be madly in love and truly appreciate a dog that can blend well into your lifestyle. Good luck and don't beat yourself up, if I hadn't experienced it first hand I'd be judgmental and blame it on you. It's like having an ADHD dog isn't it. Good Luck

You run the risk of any form of problematic behavior as well as numerous genetic faults with mixed breed dogs. Here you have the mix of two breeds that are not fully tested or accepted as a breed by AKC. Not enough is known about them to determine if this is a genetic or psychological problem. You might look into the habits of both breeds, but I have never heard about these issues with Golden Retrievers at all. I know that most Poodles are hyper, though.

I'm not too worried about genetic or psychological problems....He has been improving in the past few weeks, as we have been much more strict with him and have been exercising him much more. From what I've been told and observed recently, many puppies at this age, not just mixed breeds, exhibit these behaviors. I'd love any training suggestions that anyone has to offer. Thanks!