Golden Retriever Forum:
Puppy aggression

We have an 11 week old male golden and for the past few weeks he become very scary and aggressive when we try to take certain things out of his mouth that are a no-no. It has occurred on three incidents, once with a sock and twice with paper napkins. I have a bite on my hand from the last one. He doesn't act this way around any of his toys or his food. We can take those away with no problem. We are very worried about this. Please help! (we start obedience class jan. 13th)

Well I'mnot an expert but I have grown up with goldens my whole life. You may want to try and distact your puppy with some food or another toy. If he goes back to chewing on the sock let him have it. But from then on keep socks and other things that he has gotten a hold of up higher. If he still gets at them you can purchase a "SNAPPY TRAINER" from Petsmart or other petstores. It is a mouse trap kind of thing that has a red flap on underneath of it. It snaps when the red flap is moved. It won't snap the dog's snout or paw. What you would do in your case is put it ontop of the "no-no's" and when he tries to grab it the snappy trainer will snap down and startle him. You could also spray on a solution suggested by your veterinarian that would give the items a bitter taste.

hello,welcome to the world of goldens.golden retreiver's are a wonderful dog,my family has had goldens and my husband and i currently own a year old male and have had him since he was 8 weeks old.some habits of goldens are chewing any and evrything.there were origannly breed to carry waterfowl.but aggression should not be a trait.Where did you purchase him?there are alot of iresponsible breeders out there that are breeding goldens iresponsibly and then the puppies have aggression or other problems.I personnaly would have your vet see him and see if it is a underlinning health problem.Puppy obidence classes are great!but make sure you work on trainning after the classes are finished also to keep him in tuned to it.when he gets aggresive of his toys,take it from him for a minute and tell him no bite!after a few seconds give it back and pet him and say good boy for being nice,just keep this up,it's kinda stange how he is only possesive of his toys and not his food.my golden boy when he was a pup had problems bitting and playing to hard.thankfully he has overcome that.talk to your trainer also about if they have any suggestions for you.good luck!