Advice for 18 week old puppy's behavior?
Our 4 month old GSD/Bouvier de Flandres mix puppy is so smart and occasionally sweet(when she first wakes up in the morning, lol). From the moment we got her until now, she has always been a wild one. We do tons of enrichment in the day (treat puzzles, lick/snuffle mats, training, walks, outside play), and she can settle down pretty easily. She is 100% crate trained and house broken as well. The issues that we have been experiencing are:
- We have two cats, and she constantly goes after them. We keep them separated for most of the day. But we do bring her near them so they can socialize safely(there's a baby gate), but she will still try to lunge. I don't think she's trying to be mean at all, I honestly believe she just wants to play. But she doesn't realize her size.
- She loves to pull on walks. I have tried a harness, regular collar, and a gentle lead (per our trainer, but our girl is miserable whenever she puts it on)
- Constantly jumping on us/our 6 year old son. She is already 30 pounds, and we are worried that she won't stop as she gets larger.
- Recall is 50/50, we have been working on that, but she is so easily distracted by everything, even in our home.
- Jumping to bite at our hands/clothes constantly. It's kind of a harder bite so it can break skin sometimes.
We have had her in training classes for the past 4 weeks, and I have seen some improvement. But honestly, our class is a mix of older dogs/puppies, and our trainer has been focusing more on the older dogs. So the puppies are kind of on the back burner. She will be finishing her last class this week, and I will be enrolling her into a different one. I was wondering if anyone had any tips that we can use to help with these behaviors? We love her so much and want her to be her best self.