Help! My perfect puppy has become a teen tearaway!
When you got your puppy you knew they'd be a lot of work. You survived the stress of toilet training, the sleepless nights when your puppy needed you to comfort them and the almost constant biting from your tiny land shark. You worked so hard to socialise your puppy and their training is really starting to go well. And you're starting to feel like your puppy is becoming the perfect dog of your dreams.
But then, suddenly everything changes. Your puppy stops listening to you and buggers off to the other side of the park as soon as you let them off lead, they're now barking at every person and dog they see and they're biting you again (but now it's scary because they're BIGGER). You might be feeling like you've failed or you're just not good enough to have a puppy. But that's not true - what you're experiencing is normal. Your puppy's just become a teenager.
Teenage dogs are keen to explore the world - often without you
What actually is adolescence?
Adolescence (also called the teenage stage) is the period when your puppy matures into an adult. And just like when children become teenagers, it can be a really stressful and confusing time for everyone (including your puppy). Your puppy's brain is developing rapidly to prepare them for adulthood and this can make it harder for them to behave the way you've taught them to. Dogs reach adolescence at different ages but you should expect your puppy to hit adolescence around 5-7 months old and to become an adult between 18 months and 2 years.
What should I expect?
One of the biggest reasons people struggle with their adolescent dog is that they don't know that what they're experiencing is normal. Just knowing what to expect and that it's not your fault can make it much easier to cope. It's normal for adolescent dogs to:
Forget previously trained behaviours
Pull on the lead
Become worried by things they use to be ok with
Get mouthy (especially during training)
Chase wildlife
Bark and lunge at dogs or people
So if you see any of these behaviours, just remember that this isn’t your fault and you’ve done nothing wrong. Your dog’s just become a teenager and that means they’re very frustrated, very distracted, have very little impulse control and are discovering their prey drive.
Is my dog becoming dominant?
When you start to see these behaviour changes you might start to wonder if your dog’s become dominant. But that’s 100% not the case. Despite what people say, dominance just isn’t a thing. So you don’t have to worry about whether things like your dog eating before you or you letting them sleep on the bed will have made their behaviour worse. They’re not going to make any difference. Your teenage dog isn’t trying to take over your home, they’re just trying to cope with all these changes in their brain and body. Adding in extra unnecessary rules won’t ‘teach them their place in the pack’, it’s just going to confuse them and could actually make their behaviour worse.
Snoozing on the sofa hasn’t made your dog a teen tearaway
Will neutering improve these behaviours?
If you're currently struggling with your teenage dog's behaviour you might be wondering whether neutering them will help. A lot of people will recommend neutering as a quick fix to a lot of problem behaviours, especially ones related to adolescence. This is because they’ve confused adolescence and puberty (they do start at roughly the same time so it’s an easy mistake to make). Puberty is all about sexual and physical maturity while adolescence is all about social and emotional maturity. Neutering your dog might help with some problem behaviours that start during puberty. However, the vast majority of behaviours people struggle with when their dogs are teenagers are caused by adolescence and won’t be affected by neutering.
Does my teenage dog hate me?
It’s common for teenage dogs to stop listening to trained cues (like sit or recall). Frustratingly, they’re more likely to stop listening to the person who gave them the most care and did the most training while they were a puppy. And they’ll find it much easier to listen to people outside your home (like your trainer, walker or friends and family). This is EVERY teenage dog - not just yours. So don’t take this personally, it’s absolutely not because your dog hates you.
Teenage humans do the same thing - they’ll behave better for aunt and uncles, friends’ parents and teachers than they will for their own parents. Because teenage dogs’ and teenage humans’ relationships with their primary caregivers change in pretty much the same way during adolescence this suggests your puppy most likely thinks of you as their parent. So it might be annoying that they stop listening to you, but the reason’s actually very sweet. And when they get to adulthood they’ll be back to loving you the most.
Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter