r/tollers

Hi people,

I’m looking for a bit of expertise from people who actually raised a toller pup.

Our pup is currently 9 weeks old and been with us for little over a week. Overall, she’s doing pretty well. She sleeps well, doesn’t whine a whole lot when put in her crate, and generally can be alone in the house for short periods of time. We absolutely adore her.

In the last two days I’ve been noticing that she is being excessively bity for periods, even when offered toys or trying to ignore her. She’d rather take my hand then the toy. I also see her biting her legs a little bit. I don’t think she’s hurting herself, and she doesn’t mind when I touch the spots she’s targeting. It’s just behavior I hadn’t seen in the days before.

She’s generally pretty scared of everything when we go outside, tugging on the leash and wanting to go back inside directly after doing her business. This probably just needs some time getting used the the surroundings, scents and sounds.

She also has periods where she’s going absolutely crazy. Running through the garden, eating/thrashing all the plants and rolling around in the dirt. Jumping up against the couch and our kids. It’s really, really hard to get her to calm down. Last two times i ended up putting her in her crate (which she did not like at all).

We’ve been trying really hard to make the crate a positive experience for her and i do not want to ruin this and use it as punishment.

There is so many (conflicting) information online, so I’d rather ask the people who actually raised a toller. My questions are:

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How do you deal best with erratic behavior in the house? My gut feeling says she’s just over stimulated and needs rest, but then I have to force her into her crate. In these moments I really don’t want to have to give her a treat to go in the crate and therefor ‘rewarding’ the behavior.

The biting is annoying, but to be expected I guess. Are there better solutions than stopping play and ignoring or redirecting to a toy? I just really want to stop the targeted (unprovoked) biting of my kids hands and feet.

What is a form of ‘punishment’ that works? And I mean, just a reminder that let’s her know that her behavior is not okay? Preferably without using the crate.

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It’s funny, I thought I was well prepared but in these moments i just really feel insecure about doing the right things to create a good bond with her 😅 Any advice is highly appreciated.

I have a question about out 9 month old toller. We struggle a lot with just having him around without needing constant attention or needing to be snacking.
When we want to watch TV for example he is always jumping on the couch to be with us (he is not allowed on the couch) and still mouthing at our hands and stuff.
We don’t know how to just have him lie down somewhere or play with his toys while we watch TV.

And then as an extra do you have any tips on how to stop him from being so mouthy. He doesn’t really bite but want to put your hands in his mouth a lot.

Hey everyone,
My girlfriend and me are looking at adopting a toller, but we are worried about some parts of it.

We both work from home partially, and this makes it so that we can align it so that most days someone will be home, but ofcourse with required in-person meetings taking place sometimes we can't be certain that the dog won't be staying home alone some days.

Would this be an issue? Scouring the internet for this provided us with very varied opinions, and the breeder has also indicated multiple times this would be a problem, but people we met that got their toller from the same breeder said the dog stays alone for 8 hours without issues.

Thanks for the advice!