Congratulations you made it through Puppyhood! Woohoo! But just as soon as you start celebrating, you are hit with the baseball bat that is Canine Adolescence aka The Teenage Dirt Bag Phase. Argh! But do not despair. There is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel! I promise!
So what happened to your sweet little angel puppy? They’re still in there somewhere. There’s a lot of changes happening developmentally, physically, mentally, emotionally, and hormonally. Man, it’s tough to be a teenage puppy! It can be hard when we look at our puppy; who physically looks closer to an adult than they do a puppy; to remember that this is an important (although annoying) developmental stage for them to go through and that they are not intentionally trying to misbehave.
Their brain has been hijacked by different levels of chemicals that can cause them to act impulsively and just generally be a wild child. The most important things that they need are appropriate, effective, kind, and fair leadership. But it’s so tempting to just label them as being stubborn, uncooperative, naughty, or mischievous. Which they are in a sense, but it’s not entirely their fault.
In this stage, new neural pathways are developing and there is an increase in dopamine. According to The Cleveland Clinic:
“Dopamine is known as the “feel-good” hormone. It gives you a sense of pleasure. It also gives you the motivation to do something when you’re feeling pleasure”.
“Dopamine is part of your reward system. This system is designed, from an evolutionary standpoint, to reward you when you’re doing the things you need to do to survive — eat, drink, compete to survive and reproduce. Brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine in the reward system. When you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and you seek more of that feeling”.
So you see, teenage dogs simply can’t help themselves. The reward and pleasure seeking area of their brain has been turned on and so they seek out things that immediately give them what they are looking for. Often times these are behaviors and activities that we do not want them to be doing. You will see an increase in new and different behaviors such as running off, not returning when being called, an increase in interest and urgency in socializing with other people and dogs outside of the family pack, only doing something because they want to do it and not necessarily when you ask them to do it, testing boundaries, and becoming a bit more independent. All of this is normal.
How long does this stage typically last? Dogs enter this stage as early as 6 months and can stay there for the next 1–2ish or so years. It does depend on the individual dog but factors such as breed, size, and genetics also play a role.
What can we do? Take a deep breath and slow down. You and your dog will absolutely make it through this stage, but it is not going to be easy. You will be frustrated and disappointed a lot of the time. Just embrace the suck. Here are some tips to help keep your sanity:
Provide appropriate, kind, and fair leadership. Do not ask your dog to do something if you know they are not capable of doing it. We have to be realistic and set our dogs up for success whenever we can. For example, working on off leash skills and recall (in an unfenced area) is not appropriate at this stage. More than likely, your dog will run off and will probably not return. Don’t put yourself through this. Trust me. You can still work on recall/come when called, just use a longer leash so you are tethered to your dog at all times.
2. Do not raise your voice or resort to yelling. At a time in your dog’s life when they are testing, questioning, and exploring boundaries and relationships, we don’t want to give them any reasons to not trust us.
3. Provide them with appropriate outlets to get out their physical zooms and their mental zooms. What do I mean? Physical zooms equals movement. Allow them to run around like a crazy dog sometimes. Mental zooms equals brain energy that doesn’t have anywhere structured to go, so it sometimes comes out in behaviors we don’t like such as running around or barking. Incorporate more mental enrichment and stimulation to keep their brain active, busy, and engaged. Don’t over exercise physically.
4. Use training methods such as capturing, shaping, luring, appropriate play, redirection, and alternative or replacement behaviors. Don’t just leave your dog hanging and expect them to know what to do. They will do something and trust me when I say it’s probably something that you don’t want them to be doing.
5. Keep working on training. They may not always be listening or focused, but some of the time they are. The worst thing that we can do is to do nothing.
6. Be your dog’s cheerleader and celebrate the wins with them. We sometimes only focus on the negatives and this can make it that much easier for our dogs to tune us out and not pay attention.
7. Work on activities such as Mat and Relaxation Work, Boundary Training, and Impulse Control, but also be prepared that it’s going to be difficult for them sometimes.
8. Reach down into your patience reserves because you are going to need a lot of it!
9. Focus on working with and training the dog in front of you NOT the one you hope to have.
10. Make sure you practice self care! If you aren’t in a good mental health space, you can’t expect to be a kind, fair, or effective leader for your dog. Self care looks different for everyone.
11. Embrace the suck. It’s going to be like this for a little bit, but it’s not your forever with your dog. You have a lot of amazing time ahead of you!
This stage is difficult for everyone, but there is a fantastic dog on the other side. Just stick around long enough and you’ll see ; )
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