Hello there everyone, We're a couple with a young child and we recently bought 'Bella' a springador, choc lab x springer spaniel, around 6 weeks ago and she is now 14 weeks old. She is very much the chocolate lab in looks and many behaviours. Quite the bundle of energy. However... We are having quite a bit of trouble bonding with her and it has encroached occasionally into regret and sometimes resentment. This is a new and worrying territory for the both of us as we have extensive experience in having pets, including myself who grew up with a lab cross, and neither of us have ever felt this way before... like she's more of a burden as horrible as that sounds. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it but it feels to be the truth. It's not necessarily that she is causing absolute chaos, as most of the time she isn't. She's well toilet trained and we're progressing ok-ish with other aspects of training. Scratches and the odd chewed item which we'd rather wasn't, has typically turned up; which we'd fully expected and prepared for, but hasn't really helped. Often though a main issue is her nipping and biting. We have read and tried most methods from anywhere and everywhere, the yelp mimicking, ignorance and diversion to a chew toy etc. Yet the behaviour sees very little sign of disappearing. She's also not quite teething yet. She can quite happily sit on command, come when she's called most of the time and has taken to playing fetch like a natural. Lead training is so far going badly as when she is often distracted, simply by other people walking past, a leaf blowing down the pavement or let alone other dogs, she rarely takes interest in having treats or toys to distract her from pulling towards whatever she is after. Unsurprisingly this too has become a source of frustration. All this plus a somewhat in your face and/or under your feet behaviour can really add up sometimes. Typically at the most inconvenient times where we aren't able to take a few minutes out to play with her and her toys. She's walked regularly twice a day for 20 to 30 mins. We have booked in to a series of training classes in August, yet this seems quite a way away and its driving us to our wits end at times. Mainly I guess I'm just wondering if we've underestimated what we've got ourselves into and just need something of an adjustment to our expectations, or if there's perhaps something else we can do to calm the whirlwind? Sometimes we're absolutely fine with her but at others its almost too much, and its making it harder to us to get a feeling that we've bonded with her properly. Many thanks for reading anyway. Any help or advice is much appreciated. Even if it is just saying that its a typical puppy, deal with it. Gareth
Hi there, and welcome to the forum. It sounds as though you have your hands full with a lively pup. Your puppy is normal as you probably suspect, and this is peak biting time. But there are strategies to help you cope. Here is are a couple of articles specifically for people like you, feeling overwhelmed by the biting and nipping and the sheer never ending ness of all that puppy excitement Biting puppies - help for new puppy parents Over excited puppies Leash training is a long process and you need to have system in place to make progress. There is a lot of information here to help you. Negative feelings towards a puppy are not unusual in the first few weeks. It can all seem a bit much. You are not alone though, many here have shared your pain . So do post up with any questions you may have. The more specific they are, the more answers you're likely to get!
Many thanks for the welcome and all the information. This is hopefully exactly what we need. The heel training guide looks very useful and brilliantly detailed. (My main bug bear is vague and limited guides/procedure). We will try to train her this way as she is extremely excitable and very easily distracted. With any luck should even have some pictures to follow up too. We will let you know how we progress.
