Much like happens for all of us, your dog will go through an adolescent phase and this period can be fraught with difficulty. Dogs will enter their adolescent period at around 6 months old, and exit between 18 months and 2 years of age. Smaller dogs tend to mature more quickly, larger dogs more slowly. During this time you may feel like your dog has forgotten everything they learned in puppy class. You are not imagining it. There is physiological evidence that neural synapses are breaking and reforming at a very high rate. Previously attentive pups will start to ignore you and non-chewers will become destructive maniacs.
Fear not, this is normal! Most of what you will experience is a non-emergency and I find myself encouraging puppy owners to double down. Your progress may slow down and your dog’s attention span might shorten but they are still learning. As your dog becomes more independent they are going to push their boundaries and experiment with new things. Just like with human teenagers, it is really important that you remain present to guide your teenage pup into a well-behaved adulthood. Do not let them just figure it out on their own.
One exception: a behavior that may be an adolescent emergency is if your previously friendly dog begins to show signs of aggression toward people or other dogs. While this is not uncommon, it may not be a behavior your dog will just “grow out of.” Without intervention, this can become worse and you can end up with a serious aggression problem. If your dog starts to growl, bark or lunge at people or other dogs, contact your trainer as soon as possible.
Here are a couple of adolescence survival tips:
Take another class
This will help you to continue to work with your dog through their “teenage years.” It keeps the two of you connected and might allow your trainer to identify any serious problems before they get worse. Intermediate Obedience class is chock full of ‘teenage’ dogs, and this could also be a great time for something fun and easy like tricks, agility or nosework.
Hang onto that crate
Maintain your dog’s crate training well into adulthood. Continuing to crate your dog when you are not home or sleeping can help prevent problem behaviors like chewing or barking at the window from developing in the first place. It can also be a solution if these behaviors show up. If it’s been three months since your dog was crated, they may not be so amenable to going back to crating.
And take heart: like any human teenager, your pup is still learning. Sooner than you think, that wild adolescent will become a wonderful grown-up who really did learn everything you’ve been working so hard to teach.
Originally published on ArlNow.com, January 2015
