I'm looking for advice regarding my Golden Retriever puppy. He's just over 3 months old (around 90-95 days old) and currently weighs around 10.6 kg. The vet says his weight and body condition are fine and he's growing well.

The problem is his behavior is becoming very difficult to manage and I'm not sure what is normal puppy behavior and what isn't.

Main Issues

1. Extremely hard biting

• He bites hands, arms, legs, feet, clothes, etc.
• These are not little nips anymore.
• He regularly breaks skin and causes bleeding.
• I have around 20-30 cuts and scratches on my arms and hands from him.
• If I say "No" and move him away, he often bites harder.
• If I try to remove him from something, he sometimes grabs and won't let go.
• Sometimes I have to physically open his mouth to get my hand out.

2. Chewing absolutely everything
He is not just chewing toys.

He actively tries to chew:

• Wooden furniture
• Wall plaster
• Paint
• Router cables
• WiFi router area
• Cardboard
• Wooden objects
• Marble floor (he tries to scrape pieces off and eat them)

Recently he chewed wood, got a splinter/chunk stuck in his throat, coughed for a while, spat it out, and then immediately went back to chewing the same furniture.

He has also swallowed cardboard pieces before and has tried eating multiple non-food items.

3. Redirecting doesn't work
This is where I'm struggling.

Most advice says:

• Redirect to toys
• Give chew toys

The problem is he often ignores the toy completely.

If I stop him from chewing a wall and put a toy in front of him, he frequently walks right past the toy and goes back to the wall.

Sometimes it almost feels like the moment I say "No" to something, that object becomes even more interesting.

4. Barking
He barks at:

• Doorbells
• People on stairs
• Apartment gate sounds
• People entering or leaving
• Shadows at night
• Random sounds

Sometimes he is sleeping, suddenly wakes up, barks, runs around checking the house, and then goes back to sleep.

He also howls when my sister's phone ringtone plays if she's not around.

5. Sleep concerns
This might be important.

I estimate he only gets around 8-10 hours of sleep total in a day.

He usually chooses to sleep near the kitchen where:

• People get water
• Utensils make noise
• Family members move around

Every little sound wakes him up.

Recently I put him on a harness tether in my room because it was the only way to stop him from reaching dangerous things.

After about an hour of being unable to roam around, he suddenly crashed and fell into very deep sleep.

I could literally lift his head while removing the harness and he barely reacted.

This made me wonder if he's actually severely overtired.

6. House setup
This makes management difficult.

We don't really have a puppy-proof room.

Options are:

• Hallway: he chews furniture
• My room: he chews walls/router area
• Another room: rugs everywhere and family doesn't want him peeing there
• Puja room: not an option

So we've been struggling to find a safe area where he can't destroy something or eat something dangerous.

My Questions

1. Does this sound like normal Golden Retriever puppy behavior or is this excessive?
2. Could lack of sleep be contributing significantly to the biting and chewing?
3. What would you do if your puppy actively ignores chew toys and repeatedly returns to walls/furniture?
4. Is tethering with a harness for short supervised periods reasonable if it's the only way to prevent him from eating dangerous things?
5. How would you handle a puppy that keeps swallowing non-food items like wood, plaster, cardboard, etc.?
6. Is this something he'll likely grow out of, or does it sound like a bigger behavioral issue?

Note: The thing is we can't really affoard a trainer and crating him is something he just wouldn't comply with so I need something non-crating and non-trainer advice and I've trained him to sit and also to wait for his food before starting to eat.

Any advice from people who have raised high-energy Golden Retriever puppies would be appreciated.