u/littlemousesqueek

Hi all, I have a 5 month old golden retriever and overall he is fantastic, but I am struggling in some areas and would appreciate some help.

Mainly, the biting is crazy. This is the biggest issue. I know they’re a mouthy breed but living it is a lot different to reading about it! 🥲
I’ve been trying to keep up with training and he is getting better at responding to ‘drop it’, but sometimes he’ll bite incredibly hard and won’t let go.
This really hurts so I feel I have no choice but to pull on his collar so that he’ll stop. I don’t want to hurt him in any way and I do it as gently as possible, I’m just not sure what else to do in those moments.
He doesn’t respond to yelping like a puppy. A trainer and told us to stand up with our hands out of reach, but then he bites my stomach/thighs/feet which is even more painful! Any tips there would be greatly appreciated.

Walks are also getting a bit tricky now that his teenage rebellion is kicking in.
I let him sniff as much as is safe to do so, but sometimes we need to walk past something and he’ll just lie down and refuse to move 🥲 We’ve arranged for the trainer to come back and give us some help, but he’s only getting bigger and heavier so I’d love if anyone could give advice on what worked for them in the meantime.
During his last 3 walks he also got intense zoomies, which panicked me because he was pulling really hard on the lead and then started getting frustrated and biting at it. Is this a sign that I’m doing something wrong elsewhere?

Thank you in advance for any help! :)