Adolescence in Doodles
Your puppy comes home as a baby, or maybe more accurately a toddler with teeth. As a potential new puppy parent, you understand and expect that your new puppy will need coaching and training in potty habits, bite inhibition and generally good manners around the house. You will help them understand where to sleep and how you like them to behave in different situations. You understand the critical need for socialization and basic skills like sit and wait. Puppies are like little sponges and love new challenges. As long as you practice good communication and leadership, they will learn quickly.
But what about the “teenage years”? What new parents often underestimate is how short these first puppy months really are and how challenging the adolescence period can be. Just like two legged children, you can expect behavior changes in your adolescent dog.
Adolescent dogs can be rambunctious and full of energy. There are times when all the hard work we’ve put into teaching them basic good manners, just seems to have gone down the drain. The pup has stopped nibbling on our hands and fully understands where to go potty, but is now jumping on our visitors, marking around the yard or barking at other dogs. What the heck? Just like people though, all dogs go through that period of development, there is no way to skip over it. Some changes may not be noticeable, others more pronounced. Expecting it and being prepared to deal with the changes in our dog’s behavior makes it easier to live through without getting frustrated and give up on the dog altogether.
Both male and female dogs will likely exhibit behavior changes when they reach adolescence which is generally between 6-18 months and probably most common at 8 months of age.
By the time a little male puppy reaches the age of 4-5 months, his testosterone levels start to rise. The male hormone will keep on climbing and peek around 10 months of age, then very slowly go down to reach adult levels around 18 months of age (Dunbar, 1999). These ages can vary from breed to breed and among individuals, but the important factor to keep in mind is this: adolescence in dogs generally occurs between 6-18 months and during that period, their brain is flooded with more hormones than ever. High levels of testosterone lead to greater reactivity with faster, longer and more intense responses to external stimuli. In females, rising levels of estrogen and progesterone during the same period may increase irritability and problems with other dogs as well as resource guarding issues (O’Heare, 2006). A typical behavior problem that occurs around that time is when the younger female in a multiple dog household, starts pestering the older female, even though they had been getting along just fine during the previous months. There is no predicting which puppies will become the most or least distracted adolescents. But those of us who have raised kids through and beyond the teenage years know that it is just a phase and they will most likely grow out of it.
Sadly, those adolescent months coincide with increased rate of relinquishment. Puppy parents must be aware that adolescence (the teenage years) can be challenging and you need to expect these behavior changes. Double down on your gentle training and be patient during this second phase of their development.
Just because your adolescent dog is displaying extreme behaviors don’t assume they are no longer a safe pet. They’re very much like human teenagers. As young puppies, their priority was to stay close to us for obvious safety reasons. As they get a little older (yet not old enough for any kind of wisdom), our four legged youngsters become bolder and more interested in their surroundings (Starling & al., 2013). They want to explore more and tend to get more excited by any stimuli. Full of hormones and energy, they become more challenging to manage and will test our boundaries and our patience. Potential puppy owners MUST understand and expect challenges from both their puppy and adolescent dog!
Here are a few pointers for all Dog parents:
1. Remind yourself that your dog will calm down as he gets older and look for ways to help him burn off some of the excess energy. Most dogs’ energy level will subside and gradually become more manageable. You likely need to double their activity level during this period.
2. Keep up with the training. Training is not something that we do for a short while and then stop. As our dogs go through different stages in life, it’s important to keep working with them. Puppies are great learners and so quick at mastering loose leash walking, sit and other behaviors. But as their brain gets flooded with hormones, those acquired behaviors get sloppy. There will be moments where the dog may look at us with a blank stare when given a well-known cue. At other times, the dog may be so distracted, that getting his attention requires all sorts of gimmicks, let alone getting him to respond to basic cues. Backing up, even to the very beginning of a trained behavior is often necessary. Training never improves in any linear way. The dog’s responsiveness goes up and down and during that period, it can be a real roller coaster, but it’s worth staying on the ride as sticking all the way through will pay off in the long run.
3. Get help from a professional dog trainer or behaviorist as soon as a behavior concern develops. It’s often during those months that the dog will start displaying fear or aggression problems. The longer any behaviors occurs, the harder it is to reverse the situation. When treating them right from the beginning, it’s sometimes possible to nip them in the bud so adolescent problems don’t become life long problems.
4. Reinforce calm behavior. Teaching impulse control is critical at this age. Any behavior that leads to a positive outcome will be repeated and over time become a habit that will continue during adulthood. A dog that gets let out or put on a leash before going for a walk, when barking or jumping will learn that you respond to barking and jumping. Getting out of the car, going to the dog park or dog daycare, greeting visitors, are all situations that are likely to generate excitement. They’re also opportunities to teach our dog that lunging, barking or jumping get in the way of what she wants. Patience, persistence and consistence are the key to teach our teenage hooligan to behave politely and appropriately.
5. Take your dog out for daily walks to keep his socialization up. Socializing puppies is critical, but just as important is providing our dogs with ongoing exposure to the world. During adolescence, many dogs will experience sudden fear of situations that they may have been exposed to earlier. Safe and repeated exposure will help the dog develop more confidence over time.
6. Expose the young dog to older, confident yet well-behaved adult dogs. Dogs learn to become socially acceptable around other dogs. They learn from other dogs how to play and interact appropriately and when it’s time to calm down or to stop. Older dogs will not allow for overly excitable rough housing and will interrupt a behavior when pushed too far.
Just like teenagers, adolescence in dogs can be challenging. If you are expecting it and are prepared, it can be a learning experience and a time to set good habits for both the dog and ourselves. And again, just like teenagers, yours may miss this phase or only have mild changes in their behavior. They are all individuals.
Understanding that this is a temporary yet unavoidable developmental period in our dogs’ life can help us make better decisions. Just like we cannot give up on our teenage children, we should not give up on our teenage dogs. After all, they really can’t control their hormones and are just trying to cope with all the changes their body is going through.
Thank goodness they don’t have cell phones!
