I have got a 7 week old Golden Retreiver and he is so noisy. We have only had him a week but if you walk out the room or start preparing his food he just barks and yaps and whinges non stop. I understand he is only young and he is in new surroundings but is there anything I can do to start 'keeping' him quite. Until now when you leave him in the kitchen on his own he will bark etc non stop for about 10-15 mins and then he will settle down. All I have done up til now is ignore him but do I need to tell him off??? When I am preparing his food he jumps round the kitchen barking and yapping (obviously in excitement) but obviously I dont want him to do that forever!

I also have an 8 yr old white German Shepherd who is quite scared of him (she is scared of her own shadow), I think the biggest problem is his size at the moment because she is only used to large dogs. She has never been that sociable with any dogs, as I said she is scared of most things inc. most other dogs but she does and always has liked Golden Retreivers!?
She stears well clear of him and will not play with him at all. Is there any way I can help her to socialise with him, even a bit would be good, as at the moment he can't get close to her, if he runs up to her and she runs away!
When I feed her he goes mad at the door to get to her food. Whats the best way to stop this. She is fed on meet and mixer and he is on Beta puppy food so I know it must smell irresistable to him.

Any advice would be gratefully received as my GSD was as quite as a mouse when she was a puppy!

Hi Patches,

This worked for me, maybe it'll work for you too.
Have you tried getting your puppy 'attached' to a toy, it's really simple and i was taught this to stop my boy from jumping up at people when meeting them and also when i was trying to feed him.
All i did was to get a soft toy, rub some treats over it (nice smell for them) and start off by playing with him with this toy, the play should be fairly intensive to keep pups attention but not for too long (maybe twice a day for 10 mins), you must try and keep the toy in your possession for the most part but let pup mouth it etc. It shouldn't take too long for them to get 'attached'. When you feel they are suitable excited at the sight of their toy then make them sit for it (or wait if too young) and let them take the toy from you, most dogs will immediately start playing with it vigourously and forget everything else as they have the toy all to themselves.
Use this time to gradually start moving away from pup for periods of time and see how it goes, you should then be able to do a variety of things away from him without him barking etc.
REMEMBER: don't leave the toy down as an everyday toy, and rotate his 'attached' toy from time to time. Also don't just give him the toy before dinner or he will just associate it with being fed and you will be back to square one. You can then progress with the toy to teaching him to sit before dinner.
If he barks take the toy away and ignore him, i mean really ignore him, look away and turn your back if you have to.
HTH
:)

Thanks Sooz for the advice about the toy. He has got a favourite toy but at the moment he has an attention span of abot 20 secs!! I will try rubbing it with treats and start making it that "special" toy
Thanks

The best thing i know of is to ignore him when he is barking and when quiet give him lots of praise saying "good puppy quiet" He will EVENTUALY learn that "quiet" means "i will get fuss if i shut up". Also remember seperation anxiety, poor pup has lost his litter mates and is probally sees you as his family.
One thing i will say about Beta is it made my pup go bonkers (too much protein) possibly wean him onto something with less protein if the excitment carries on much longer
hth and someone correct me if i am wrong :)

Sam x

PS.. I dont want to sound like I want a puppy that is fully house trained and mannered at 7 weeks old. I donot expect to much, if anything of him, so I hope it doesn't sound like that I just wondered if there was anytrhing I could do to start controlling the barking as it seems to be demanding barking / attention barking if that makes sense. He gets plenty of attention and play but as soon as he stops or wakesd up then he just barks and barks................

Well ignorance seems to be working well. He still barks but not as much. When we put him to bed he barks once or twice and then thats it he settles down untill about 6.30 in the morning and then we wont go to him untill he goes quite again. He is still noisy at feed time but I donot put his dinner down untill he goes quiet again. It slowly seems to be working so thanks for the advice!

Have you got a copu of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey?

It gives really good advice about all this sort of thing, you may find it very helpful.

Lindsay

I would count to ten seconds after the puppy had stopped barking/crying, then give attention so that he didn't associate the barking with getting what he wanted, more the settling down. The only trouble is that now he is easy to forget in the garden and will just sit there, we have forgotten he's out there for up to half an hour and find him sitting patiently outside the back door, waiting to come in!
Nicki

OK, so what I said yesterday about things seem to be improving well:
10.30 went to bed, 11.15 still barking. eventually settled down.
1.10am started barking, still barking when looked at clock again at 1.58am still barking for atleast another 10 mins after that.
3.30am started barking for another 20 mins
6.00am started again for further 30 mins.
7.00am started barking, didn't go down to him untill he was quite again at 7.25am!

and Im tied and he must have a sore throat!!

He had his first injection yesterday and was wormed again, can this upset them or is he just trying to push boundries?

I will get a copy of that book now!

The breeder said to get a herbal calmer, I think she said from a chemist but I cant find what I wrote it on. I saw the same thing mentioned on this site somewhere last week but cannot find it, does anyone know something like it?

Dorwest Herbs?

Hi do you mean a DAP diffusser if so you can get them from your vet.Gillian

No I'm sure she said it was from a chemist and it was called something like rescue remedy or something because I thought it was a strange name for something that you get at a chemist??

Ah yes you do get rescue remedy at the chemist it is from the Bach flower range and you put drops on their tongue or add it to their water.HTH Gillian

Thanks very much, I wasn't sure if that was the right name for it and if it wasn't it would have been quite hard trying to explain the problem to a pharmacist!!

Be careful when using RR directly into the mouth (Or better still just don't :-( ) as the glass dropper could easily get broken - also some dogs don't like the taste of alchohol and won't take it neat. It can also be used by dropping onto the ear leather.....

Hi fair comment but I actually use the spray version that can be bought now for ease of delivery (for myself may I add) only tried giving it to one of my dogs once and discovered she wouldnt drink the water with it in so gave her a quick spray as well.

thanks, do you recommend it? Do you think it actually does something? I want to try it on my older GSD who is quite nervy and gets stressed? The breeder said to use it on the pup when he gets 'upset' so I thought it might be good for the other dog aswell if it works?????

Hi I know alot of people use it for anxiety and I find it does help me personally(I get nervous when showing) but then there are also people that say it doesn't work so I'm afraid its a case of trying it to see. Sorry that isnt a very definite answer.Gillian

Thats OK, its worth a try thanks for all the advice and last night 'Monty' slept from 11.00 right through til 7.00am without a peep.