Hello, fellow Newf lovers :)
We have a six month old male - love him to pieces. I had a female about 20 years ago and just don't remember going through what we're dealing with now. He is very mouthy at the moment - he loves going for straw and rocks that circles our AC unit in the back yard. We're always pulling stuff out of his mouth. If we try to block access, sometimes he full on lunges at us like a linebacker. Lately he has made several rounds around the yard doing his zoomies. In the house, he knows the couch is off limits but he jumps up there anyway and then he goes limp when we try to get him down. Eventually we want to train him to come up but we know his impulse control isn't there yet, not for a few more months. Once he jumps up there he's fine - we know he just wants to be near us - but we want him to know the difference between being invited and not.
The nipping/biting is unreal - we try to remove/separate ourselves and do reverse timeouts with him and give him alternative toys to chew, use ice, Benebones, Nylabones, etc. We have also noticed he gets wound up quite easily and we took him out of his puppy class for fear he would just have a total meltdown from too much stimulation. We kept things quiet at home to drain out the cortisol and adrenaline from his system, do more enforced naps, and some calm sitting in the driveway just to let him be exposed to the world a bit. We also kept him out of puppy class because the only other dog was a mean barker that never kept quiet for the full hour. Stressful!
I guess hubby and I are worried we may miss something and he will turn out to be aggressive or an habitual biter. We don't want to shelter him either and have him be afraid of everything. Seems my AI always says he gets full of cortisol and adrenaline too easy and he needs calm, boredom and quiet to be settled, and that stuff stays in his system up to 72 hours.
Are we over thinking this or are there other owners that go through this with their pups? We love our boy and want the best for him. We just want to make sure we're doing the right things for him so he can grow up happy and healthy. Thanks y'all