Hi our 6 month old female retriever has her adult teeth through now but is still biting and it hurts!!

If we are washing up or even playing with her she can just turn and it doesn't seem like play biting. She growls and shows her teeth. We were told when she was a puppy that it was normal but it has just continued to a point where it could be dangerous.

The only time she was better was when she was on chicken and rice due to a continual stomach problem. She has now gone back on dog food wainwrights (was on beta puppy) the stomach seems to be better but she has tuned mental again!

Has anyone else come across this problem which to me appears to be a chemical imbalance of some sort but we are not sure what and it is getting us down as we do everything for her then she goes and bites and growls at us! Thanks for your help!

How much mental and physical exercise is she getting?
How are you teaching her that mouthing is not ok?

Sorry to answer your question with another question but her behaviour is most likely down to poor bite inhibition and possibly boredom. Goldies are a high energy breed that need to be challenged both physically and mentally every day so that they can be calm loving pets in the house.

Hi, thanks for reply. as she is still only 6 months, half an hour - 45 mins walking (mostly off the lead) we play games as much as we can but she is by herself for two 3.5 periods in the day with only the radio. We play fetch in the garden but she starts biting after 2 or 3 times, she has lots of toys but isn't really bothered by many of them. We do however go through so much cardboard making parcels for her to find treats in but it doesn't seem to be enough if this is the problem.

I am still thinking that it must be something in the normal pet foods you get that makes her a little crazy and would be interested to know if anyone has had similar experiences with differnet foods.

That's not enough exercise for a 6 month old goldie.. She should be having 30 mins on the lead maximum, but as much as she can take of offlead exercise on grass and sand. She needs to build up muscle too remember. Dino is 9 months and gets 3 hours a day off lead on soft grass.

Do training sessions a few times a day with her and make sure you take her out to release her energy before and after being left.

I do have experience of the food thing, I feed Dino on raw but had run out of food and gave him James Wellbeloved one day. He went mental and destroyed everything in my flat

I don't feed him kibble ever now!

Not sure if it is over stimulation if games are too exciting?

Kilo was horrendous in terms of impulse control until about 9 months of age and used to jump and mouth when over excited. I learnt to read the signs that it was about to start carefully and stop a game or whatever and do some training to calm and distract him. If it happened out on a walk (big problems on windy days as the leaves swirling used to get him really excited!) I used to stop, not say a word and stand on his lead. Once he was a tiny bit calmer I would get his attention and again do a few obedience exercises - sits / downs etc then continue the walk. If he directed his mouthing at the lead I secured it round a lamp post and stepped out of reach - only took about two or three repetitions and he understood that it was a useless exercise.

I would also give your dog more offlead exercise if possible - may be one of the problems.

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I don't think so, Goldies are highly intelligent and people loving dogs. I would imagine that your dog is frustrated.
Have a look at gun dog training exercises, a bit more interaction and training at the same time may help.
Just retrieving toys is not enough for an intelligent breed like this.

Thanks for the replys!! I think you are probably right, we could do more specific training but as for having the dog off the lead for 3 hoursa day, it seems a bit much for what is essentially a puppy. It was drummed into us by vets and trainers that for the first year of their life they should be excercised for only 5 minutes per month of age as there bones are still forming and any longer will create awful problems later in life as the breed are prone to hip problems.

I'm thinking of trying a natural diet for 3 or 4 weeks and see how that works (whilst giving her some more training activity). Has anyone come across Honeysrealdogfood.com ? they seem to know their stuff.

I used it when it was 'Darlings' briefly when I wanted to feed raw but had to take Kilo's food to work quite often, use the fridge etc. I was very impressed but it is expensive. I started to feed raw 'properly' once I had left work.

My understanding of the 5 min / month rule is that it is for enforced lead walking on pavements...which I did stick to. Offlead on soft surfaces I pretty much let Kilo do what he wanted as there is no pace to enforce, no great distance to cover and a pup can rest whenever needed and just potter about sniffing and investigating everything.

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Hi, I've got a 10month old Springer and had the same problems as you. She's calmed down nearly completely now. When we first got her, at 5 months old, she was being fed Pedigree Chum puppy food and that was making her extra loopy. After a lot of trial and error we now feed Molly on Nature Diet and James Wellbeloved dry biscuits. We were also only taking her out once a day-off lead for about half an hour. We soon realised that that was nowhere near enough exercise for her. She now goes out twice a day, both off lead all the time, for up to an hour each time.
I had read things about not exercising them too much, but each dog is different but I can't really advise you on that. I'm sure someone on here will.
Hang in there, it does get better, but in Molly's case I'm sure it was the extra exercise that helped a lot. Good luck x

Thanks dogless and mollyspringer. Our goldie is called Molly!! I think this is probably a good idea. It has been quite frustrating as in the morning we let her out and we just sit with her playing games, kongs etc thinking we shouldn't be walking her anymore. I wonder if we take her walking in the morning as well as the evening for half hour to an hour each and see if it makes any difference.

As far as bite inhibition goes, everything we have tried, no's, off's, oww's, screaming etc all result in more biting. we do no tend to leave the room or put her out in the kitchen but it involves draggin her to the door whcih probably seems like a fun game to her. We try completely ignoring her when she is doing it but more often than not she carry's on until we have to move cause it hurts! All advice is greatly appreciated thanks!