What was that you said about having a perfect pet? Is your puppy suddenly giving you a bit (or a lot) of attitude? Won’t do as you ask? Ignoring all that basic training you worked so hard on last year? Yes? Sounds like you have an adolescent in the house!
A heartfelt response
After a recent email we had the following response:
“Thank you so much for this email. My dog is 8 months and doing all the things you mentioned. I was beginning to think she was a Bloodhound and not a Lab. Her nose is never off the ground. I am so looking forward to next Wednesday’s zoom session. Again thanks so much l thought it was me not training enough.”
It can be a shock when your cuddly pup enters adolescence. You have been justly proud of your puppy, showing off how they respond to you asking them to do things to all your friends and relatives.
But then things change.
What was that you said about having a perfect pet?
Your pup seems to have forgotten all his basic training. Some days, they’ll respond to your cue to “sit” quite readily. On other days they will look at you as if they have never heard the word before. Or even do the opposite and run away. And as for recall – well, you can forget that one.
It’s a tough stage to cope with due to those sex hormones, which start to rage.
In dogs, there is a spike in testosterone up to around 10 months old which only starts to reduce to adult levels at around 18 months old. Just as in humans, hormonal changes in dogs can have a significant effect on behaviour.
Things you see as cute and funny in tiny puppies become highly annoying. Adolescent dogs become rowdier, mouthier, jumpier and more obnoxious than at any other time in their development.
They may develop short fuses and will test you and even ignore you.
How young dogs and humans are similar
Young dogs are like young humans: they like action and speed, they get easily bored when nothing is happening and they have no self-control at all. This means that they often can’t control themselves when something exciting happens and can become over-stimulated and over-excited very easily.
During this stage, your cute puppy is more interested in sniffing other dogs, sniffing wee and poo, rolling in smelly stuff, humping, marking, licking urine and chasing squirrels, than in responding to you.
It’s a tough stage to work through and often starts earlier than you think it will.
You become stressed and worried, blaming yourself for training ‘failures’ and being weighed down by your pup’s bad behaviour.
Adolescence is about fire fighting. It’s a time to go back to basics. To focus on what you want your dog to do rather than worrying about what they won’t do.
What we can do to help you with your problem pooch
You can learn some adolescence answers and ask me any burning questions at the next Doggy Doctor Discusses session, always the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Sign up to our emails to get more details and the Zoom link.
These sessions are completely free.
If you can join me live you can ask me anything about any problems you’re facing.
But don’t worry if you can’t make it – you can send in any questions you have by email and I’ll answer them in the session, then you can watch the replay which will be available on our online site soon afterwards.
Hope to see you there!
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol
