Springador puppy frenzy General Chat

I’m exhausted reading your post ! That’s puppies for you. I love your positive attitude and yes it is relentless.
You have to decide how you want things to be in your house that works for your family and your own routine and stick with it, if we “ bend “ to what our puppy wants, it would be disastrous
Things don’t always go smothly and remember this ..... if it goes wrong today it doesn’t mean it will go wrong tomorrow!
Stay strong and consistent
I smiled when you said he slept on your bed, it reminded me of when my twin boys were babies, I was so tired and when they cried through the night I let them sleep in my bed, don’t beat yourself up, I’m sure we have all done it
Some of my friends dogs sleep on their beds, it’s not for me, but, it’s a personal choice
Keep us posted!

Hello Karola [or should that be Karolina?] and thank you so much for giving us an update on how Koda is doing. He sounds like hard work but also a lot of fun, but he is still a bubba from a high energy breed, something I do not know anything about, just as I do not know anything about kibble, but the one thing I do know is not to expect that cute, gorgeous Koda to turn into the perfectly behaved puppa overnight.

And once he gets the idea that your bed is his... I know that both my previous dogs slept on my bed but after Pereg, it was crate or nothing. Not that I did not give in to little Tikva a couple of times, but that was enough. It was crate or else.

And the "or else" won!

As for trying to keep her off the couch... she says I have my chair so the couch [and dozens of toys that she insists on having on there with her] are hers. But that is not anything that bothers me so I do not worry about it.

Koda is still a bubba and he is trying his best to be the boss. Just wait until he reaches the Kevin stage!

We are just at the “ Kevin “ stage
I’m shattered !
Don’t you just love them though ?

Only just now at the "Kevin" stage? "Just you wait, Mary Ellen, just you wait!" [Maybe that was where "Just you wait, 'enry 'iggens" originally came from in My Fair Lady?]

You see that just when you think your puppa is a now grown-up well-trained dog, they can tend to revert to being Kevin again!

Oh I’m so pleased it’s “ normal “ !
He is definitely testing the boundaries, anyway, that’s enough about my husband! ! !!

Actually my "crate or else" meant "crate or else you end up outside". Which somehow she found herself, eeping for me, while I was crawling around on my hands and knees following her eeps - until I opened the front door and she came in, but no of course I had not put her out, not at that age.

@Karolina - your little gorgeous Koda, anything and everything can - and will - do at his age, especially is he is a high energy breed. Try to keep him physically and mentally occupied, and just love him - and train him of course - but treasure those bubba moments and just love him.

Hi guys,
It is 7 AM and we had a horrendous night.
So last night he had a double frenzy, one at 19.00 and the second about 22.00.
Even though he should have been asleep at 10 he went nuts and started biting us and barking at us. He jumped on bed and wanted to play, bite and wouldn’t listen. We were all cool and all of the sudden he jumped at my face trying to bite. He was then taken down with “go to bed” that he knows but of course he didn’t want to. He started biting so bad and got my already cut hands again and it was bad. Was taken out to cool down and when he came back he went for my hands again and I swear he knew what he was doing - side of the palm and fingers and there was a bit of blood! I couldn’t cope and so I got him by the collar and put him outside the room – twice to calm down which he did. No crying or noting and when he came back he did it again and the second time I just grabbed him like mums do by the skin on his neck and again put him outside. But this time I think he got a bit scared as he made a little cry.
When he came back after 2 minutes he was quiet and went straight to bed. Then he went out of the crate, sat next to it and was sitting there for few minutes with blank expression. I could tell he got scared. He fall asleep and in the morning I found him on bed again – this time far away from me on the other side and didn’t even made a sound.
I felt awful, almost made me cry. In the same time my hands have deep cuts to flesh as if I took a razor blade and cut myself. This has to stop as in the end of the day it is not acceptable.
I am worried now that there is massive dominance issue with him and we will have to be so strict.
I am really shocked as this is supposed to be a sweet breed cross and to be honest he has a very sharp taste to it. I love his face and want him to be happy. Can’t wait for these classes – maybe it will calm him a bit. My husband that’s with him all the time – as he works from home – loses his cool too. I think he challenges me more though. Did you guys experience this to be that intense? I just want to add that he doesn’t have any issues with toys, food, doesn’t growl or snaps. When you pick him up he calms down almost immediately, you can hold him and he is fine. When he wakes up he is very submissive and calm. When he is in his crazy mode we feel that he is very challenging.
I have this thought – is it possible that this behaviour is part of his character and he is just a working type dog that has a capacity for so much more and doesn’t have a way to express it? I’m not trying to make excuses but I just need to find a way to work with this.
He isn’t really scared of things. He is only 3 months old and loves doing everything that I would find a bit much for a puppy his age. We showed him things and places and never forced him to do anything. He loves agility / obstacle run/ training/vet visits/shopping centres/ busy streets/sea/ people! We took him places and he wasn’t really sacred of anything. He loves heights, climbing and jumping. He likes kids slide, pipe tunnels, frame with two ramps, and see saw, high dog walk, and small hurdles. He just does that as this was walk around the block! We train every day and he can sit, lie down, stay, speak, quiet, paw, jump, high five, reach to sky, stay with treat in front of him, stay and get a toy and search for treats that are hidden. He can do roll over but doesn’t really like it too much. Do you have any other suggestions? I seems like his capacity has no end.

Koda is a bubbi and he is doing everything many bubbies do - testing you. Just please never pick him up to quieten him as that is what he wants. And please please never whop him for punishment. Because he will not understand why. And maybe trying to teach him tricks is not what he needs at such a young age?

Puppies, whatever breed, can be and can are diabolical, [and that includes human babies] and puppy baby teeth hurt like Hades.

Please keep trying with him because your only other choice would be to request the breeder to take him back. And I know that you love him and that would be the last thing you would want.

Oh no, he is home, not going anywhere. We just want him to be ok.
Perhaps we are doing too much and overstimulate him. We will look into it, thank you for the suggestion. Maybe we just need to chill We never hit him or scare him or intimidate him. If anything he actually responds better for "good boy, common you can do it" sort of thing but last night was just so hard.
Thank you for the suggestions and also I didn't know I shouldnt pick him up to quieten him. Now it makes sense. Thank you!

You have a working dog, they are not couch potatoes, mental stimulation is just as important as physical, anything that will challenge his brain as well as his body, a stuffed kong will keep him amused, hide and seek, training/playing ect:

When you say he got into a frenzy we call it zoomies, lots of puppies do it all you can do is wait it out, avoid the teeth, redirect, but no putting him on his back or restricting him, which will just make it worse.
If he gets to exited get some food/toy he likes and waft it in front of his nose with out letting him have it, tell him to sit, reward, by either giving the food or throwing a toy for him to get.
Puppy biting is normal puppy behaviour and yes, it can be very trying It doesn't happen over night but persistence and patience do pay off, it can take months depending on the puppy but it ‘does get better.

I think the goal is not so much to stop them from biting, but to teach them bite inhibition/ bite control.
There are different methods so it’s a case of finding the one that works.

I always held a tit bit in the tips of my thumb and forefinger with a firm grip and would never release the to the puppy unless they took it ‘gently’ it may take a few attempts but they all learned the only way they got the tit bit was to take it ‘gently’ eventually when they understand the word you can apply it when he goes to bite.

Got it, we will be working on it! Thank you guys

and please keep on with how he goes and how you cope. My little nutcase still has the zoomies but once she knew what "gently" was, her teeth stopped from cutting through skin but just a gently chomble - it eventually happened and she has never hurt me since, even though both she and I both know she could without that "gently" instruction.

@GsdSlave has said exactly what I would have written.
The only thing I would add is to be careful with the agility and jumping at this age. Your puppy will love doing it, but the joints in his legs will not be fully formed until their growth plates have closed, and could be affected by the stresses that jumping places on them.

Poor you Karola
You must feel so disappointed and disheartened.
We had to deal with a lot of puppy biting and after following advice from various people on this site we managed to ease things really quickly. There is lots of advice on the internet, but, this is how we did it
When the biting begins we quickly moved away and grabbed a soft toy and pushed it into Yojis mouth, quickly followed by a tasty treat
We then continued to play with his different toys, but every time the biting starts put a soft toy to his mouth
Yoji was a big heavy Akita puppy with sharp teeth, I was also victim of several cuts that bled ( I even kept them hidden from friends as I felt embarrassed ) as we were dealing with this I, just like you will be feeling now, felt as if it’s never going to stop
So, now, when Yoji is excited to see us he will dash to his toy box and grab a soft toy himself before he comes to us, i know though even though he is 1 year old he would still “ mouth “ us
One, more point, we don’t fuss him until he sits calmly, they soon learn
Keep on with it, it will get easier
Philippa

@Karolina
This is Yoji now at 1year old saying “ Good morning “ to my sister
He got himself a rag beforehand, we tie them in knots for him to nibble. He only has these when supervised as we don’t want him digesting fibres

Morning!
I want to say that we tried all methods suggested and it worked!
It looks like we were over doing it! So yesterday we were redirecting which was much better! Yes! and also we didn't work out that much which seemed good too even though Koda was a bit bored. We also gave him extra cardboard box which he loved and his favourite laundry basket Played for like 45 min and then went to sleep. Evening was better as well, a bit of play with redirecting and a chewy and after only few minutes of boredom and whining he went to sleep
Obviously this is only a start, I'm not gonna get excited but I enjoyed it which is great and looks like he did too. Also he had a bit of new food - Royal Canin Junior and he loved it. Demolished the whole thing! We had a great afternoon Thank you guys for all your help. Here are some pics

What super photo and looking at that adorable face I don’t believe he is any trouble ! ! !
You mentioned in your original post a “ crate “ can I ask, how and when do you use it ?
Also, I’m not sure if you have read any article on how much sleep puppies need, it’s a lot and if they don’t get that sleep they display behaviour which isn’t pleasant
A pup your age should be sleeping 18 hours out of 24, it is a lot, but, it is necessary for physical and mental growth
Sleep should be encouraged and sometimes the idea of keeping them busy and awake so they sleep at night will have the opposite effect
If you get chance ask the question on the Internet
Also, ask the question how far you should be walking your puppy, that’s another really important thing to take on board
Philippa

Ok, so separation and confinement is something we need to work on. I’m not sure if this is only one or both. I think it is worse with confinement as we can leave him alone for few min here and there and he barks a bit but then his fine. No pooping or anything. But if he sees bars it’s like the end of the world. Any bars - crate, gate and pen you name it.
Crate – he hates being locked in it. He will go in it and likes to be in there but the moment the door closes it’s a cry. If I’m honest we didn’t really push the crate issue as we won’t be locking him in it when we are out.
We also have a door gate that he dislikes the same way. If we are in a kitchen and he can’t see us he will cry and get very upset and distress.
Pen – we have one of those pens that you can do different shapes with it. So he doesn’t like it but is not as bad as the crate or gate. He has got his toys and bed in it and on the other side a bowl of water. He will cry and bark a bit but then he will get on with his play. However we haven’t left him in it on his own yet as I feel that he will jump over it. He can jump! The interesting thing tough – we did little experiment too see why he cries, what is it that he wants…
We left him in the pen alone, we’re in a room – cry
His in a pen, we close to the pen – cry
He in a pen, we in a pen – cry
We in a pen, he outside – cry
Pen around the sofa or bed blocking him from us - cry
Pen on the side, just so he can see it, no separation – fine
Pen blocking half the room with only one side of pen to be seen but still separating us from him – fine
I think we will have to start working on his own play time and encourage him to have more naps. When he is tired he gets cranky. If it comes to walking – he goes out for a potty break every hour or so, and twice a day for about 15-20 min walk and run in a park/field, sometimes he meets dogs sometimes he doesn’t. We also take him in a car for trips to pet shop etc. we drive most places and want him to get used to a car. It’s about 5-10 min driving.
Yesterday afternoon we went to pick up food from a vet. After that we went close to home for a little grass area which I think he enjoyed more than a field/park. He played fetch for like 10 min ad then he got tired and it was home time. So all together we were out for about 30 min. When we got home he had a play time with the boxes for about 15 min and went to bed.

If he is not the most adorable [do not tell Tikva that] puppa ever... and so showing his "I wanna" or "I do not wanna" traits, then I do not know of another one... yet!

Just give him time but do not give him permission to what he wants. Do not be nasty and/or shout at him - sometimes just ignoring his complaints work far better for him to learn. Noisy as they may be at times - and that is when earplugs come in handy!