Hey yall, our 5 month old golden can be a nightmare on walks. He’s a fantastic listener inside and generally speaking outside he can tighten up as well here and there, but when he gets overstimulated, all bets are off.
My wife and I are tracking when this happens, and it can be the after poop zoomies, or we’ll notice if there’s a lot of leash tugging IE trying to get him going in a direction or away from something, you only get a few of those and then he enters this state. It’s him on his hind legs, trying to jump on you, trying to bite you, essentially thinking it’s play time/time to jump on my parents and get them worked up. My poor wife really gets the brunt of this whole situation, so a lot of what we’ve been working on has been helpful for her, but now that he’s getting bigger we want to try and nix this and course correct as efficiently as possible.
We’ve had successes with a few different approaches such as the stand still when he tugs on the leash, but then this will normally turn into him trying to bite our hands and jumping on us to get more of a reaction. When he leaps at us, I normally redirect him mid flight with his momentum and weight to get away until he tires himself out, unfortunately my wife isn’t as strong as I and she cannot do this. We’ll try and get him to sit and settle, overload him with treats, and recently we’ve been carrying a toy to shove in his mouth since it really just seems like his mouth moves faster than his brain processes things.
All this to say, it can be somewhat random when this happens but we’re getting better at understanding his cues. Again, it’ll be after poops, after some leash pulling, and notoriously we’re almost always guaranteed this on the last walk of the night whether he poops or not.
Those that have goldens or dogs that go through this phase, what’s the best approach? It’s insanely frustrating and embarrassing, it makes walks such a drag.
submitted by /u/LeanSenzuBean
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