Understanding Your Teenage Dog
Understanding Your Teenage Dog: Why They Stop Listening And What You Can Do
As dog owners, we expect training to be a straight line: you teach them, they learn and from there, you have a perfectly behaved dog for the rest of your lives. Right? But if you’ve ever raised a dog from puppyhood or if you have a teenage dog right now, you know that’s not exactly how it works.
Dogs, like humans, go through a challenging adolescent phase that can be feel really frustrating. Suddenly, your well-behaved puppy is ignoring commands, not listening to you, testing boundaries and acting out in ways you never expected. So, what's going on?
In this guide, I’ll help you understand your teenage dog.
The ‘Terrible Teens’
Dogs typically enter adolescence between 6 and 18 months of age. The most pronounced behavioural issues are usually around 6 to 12 months of age. The timing varies depending on breed, size and environmental factors, but one thing is consistent: this phase brings significant changes.
Adolescence is driven by big hormonal changes and brain growth. Both of these affect a dog’s mood, behaviour and attention span. Just like human teenagers, dogs generally become more confident during this time, less responsive to you and sometimes their behaviour can become unpredictable and seem rather odd. You might be wondering why your dog is suddenly barking at things that they’ve seen their entire life and never barked at before. Or why they are not responding to their recall when they were perfect as a puppy, to name a few of the many changes that can happen. This is a natural part of growing up as their brains develop and they test the limits of the world around them.
Why Does My Dog Stop Listening?
If your once-obedient dog starts to act like they have forgotten everything they’ve learned, you’re not alone. Several factors contribute to this change.
Genetics: Nature And Nurture
Raising a dog through their teenage phase is a bit like a chemistry lesson. Remember back in school, you would have a base compound. And to that compound you would add something else. That something else might turn the base compound from clear to blue, or clear to purple, or purple to orange or make it fizz, pop or boil. What the base compound ended up becoming depended purely on what was added to it at the time.
The genetics of your dog are, effectively, your base compound. The base compound is what your dog fundamentally is from a breed perspective because the breed of your dog will usually determine what kind of behaviours your dog is most likely to do. There are lots and lots of breed traits within each dog and these may or may not become activated.
That part is nature.
During the teenage phase, what is added or not added to your dog’s base compound as you raise them will either switch on certain breed traits or keep certain breed traits switched off.
This part is nurture.
Nurture is everything the dog experiences environmentally from a sensory perspective as well as the experiences the dog has at home and outdoors.
Once a genetic trait is switched on, it is difficult to switch it off. You can’t turn orange back to clear or, rather, it is very difficult to do this (but not impossible).
Sometimes, a drop of rabbit scent switches the genetics on so much in a dog that it becomes a frenzied predatory dance and now prey drive becomes an issue. Sometimes the actions of another dog push a button of rage on. Sometimes the chase of a bird activates the chase trait so strongly that recall becomes difficult from then on.
Our job at this point in our dog’s life is to not give our dogs the benefit of doubt so that nothing gets activated by mistake. Our job is not to slacken off in our training because ‘we’ve done that bit and trained it’. Our job is to deal with the unexpected potions that were meant to turn blue but ended up orange instead. Our job is to step up our training, not slacken off through this phase so that our clear base compound stays clear and life remains simplified. Essentially, we have to be on the ball so that we don’t accidentally push the button ‘on’ for certain behaviours that our dogs are genetically able to perform, if that isn’t what we want from them.
Hormones
Teenage dogs are like teenage children, particularly the boys! Whilst sometimes it seems like they are choosing to stick two fingers up at you (which sometimes they are), actually there really is a lot more going on for them during this phase.
This is a time where their brain is rapidly expanding and three major parts of it completely reorganise. At the same time as this dopamine, vasopressin, oxytocin and acetylcholine hugely spike, all at different growth rates. These are hormones that play a big role in behaviour. Effectively, the brain is giving out way too much chemistry and is firing off all over the place, whilst also trying to re-order things. It’s utter chaos for them inside those little heads!
All of this often causes drama and sensation seeking in our dogs during this time (particularly in male dogs who are physically tired but mentally ‘wired’) and it all happens right at the point where the self-control part of the brain remains underdeveloped. It’s a heavy concoction of hormones, brain fuzz and a lack of self-control all at the same time.
Confidence…Or Not
Anyone with a teenage dog will know that the adolescent phase can come with an increase in confidence within our dogs. By confidence, I mean that you might find your dog straying further away from you on walks or exploring more things at a greater distance because they feel that they don’t need to stay so close to you anymore.
You might also find that, due to all of the above, your dog starts to spook or bark at random objects or dogs or things they never did before. Your dog might go through phases where certain things trigger them for short periods of time and this is all quite typical of spikes in the chaotic teenage cycle.
Tired But Mentally Wired
As their bodies grow and as they become physically stronger and fitter, you’ll find that your teenage dog has a lot of energy. People often notice this and take their dog out for another walk in order to ‘burn off the energy’. One problem in doing this is that your dog becomes fitter as a result and in need of even more exercise. But the biggest problem here is that they end up physically tired but mentally ‘wired’ because they are not receiving a balanced mix of physical and mental stimulation. A mentally wired dog, with a physically tired body is more than likely going to display challenging behaviours.
How To Work With Your Teenage Dog
So what do we do during the teenage phase? Here are some tips to help you through what can feel like an incredibly frustrating time.
Stay Consistent And Make Choices For Them
Teenage dogs often make poor choices although now we know why this is, it’s quite understandable. Consistently reinforcing the things we do want them to do and giving them clear, but fair, boundaries is important during this time. Imagine only ever being told off for doing something but not being shown what the right thing to do is instead? It would make it hard to ever make the right choices wouldn’t it? We need to make choices for our dogs during this time and show them what it is we do want them to do in certain situations so that they can start to get it right. For example, instead of barking at the dog over there, you’re going to do X,Y and Z with me at these times and in these situations instead.
Management
Management is absolutely key during the teenage phase. Management essentially means stopping your dog from practicing things we don’t want them to do. This is important because practice makes perfect, which ultimately causes habits to form. And we don’t want that to happen when it comes to a lot of their teenage choices!
Management also ensures that our base compound remains or changes to the exact colour we want it to and not accidentally from clear to black. For example, if your dog stops listening to their recall, we don’t want to naively keep letting them off lead because ‘they know it already’, or complacently keep letting them off lead in the hope that they’ll miraculously start being amazing again. We manage their choices by use of longlines so that not responding to their recall does not become their habit and so that certain things we don’t want long-term in our dogs don’t get accidentally triggered.
Mental and Physical Exercise
It is crucial to ensure that you are working their minds as well as their bodies. Never is there a better time than to get them addicted to training which is one of the best ways to work their minds. Extra activities such as enrichment feeders and games, activities in the garden such as sensory patches and digging pits as well as revisiting anything you’ve previously taught them is going to have a huge positive impact on how they behave during the teenage phase. Don’t fall into the trap of exercising them but not working their brains!
Train, Train, Train!
There’s never a more important time than to keep training your dog during the teenage phase. If you’ve trained them from puppyhood then this will definitely be an easier time for you as all that learning will be in that rapidly expanding brain still, you’ll just need to give them a little help in finding it again. Do revisit basic obedience and practice all the things that they know, but keep training sessions short and sweet; your teenage dog may have a shorter attention span at times and we want to keep them motivated. Exercises focused on impulse control will be hugely beneficial as well as breed specific training and lots and lots of scentwork!
Socialisation
Continue socialising your dog but be careful not to expose them to too much if they are going through a particularly difficult phase, or spike in their teenage cycle. You are likely to have spikes through their teenage period where they struggle more and, during these times, reduce the size of their world and expose them to less. Keeping everything predictable, routine and not overly stimulating or overwhelming when they are finding things tricky can be really helpful; a bit like wrapping them in cotton wool for a short period.
Be Patient
The most important thing to remember is patience. This phase won’t last forever and with the right guidance your dog will come out the other side an incredible dog. Avoid punishing them or getting frustrated with your teenage dog and focus on what you need to do to help them instead. They are having a difficult time underneath all that cuteness and it is our job to help them through.
When to Seek Professional Help
If your dog’s behaviour becomes too challenging to manage, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. A dog trainer or behaviourist can provide personalised plans and techniques to address specific issues that you and your teenage dog might be facing. If you’re considering neutering your teenage dog as a result of behavioural problems then please discuss this with both your Vet and a qualified behaviourist first to ensure that you are making the most informed decision. Neutering involves removing certain hormones from their system and, depending on the problem and their exact age, this can help or hinder certain behavioural challenges and physical development.
This Too Shall Pass
Dog adolescence can feel so incredibly frustrating, I know. Remember, this is just a phase! It happens to us all and we can’t avoid it with our dogs. You can make it quicker and easier by following this advice. With effort and understanding, you and your dog will get through it together and your relationship will be stronger for it. That amazing dog you knew before this time is still in there, they just need help in finding who they are again.
If you need help with training your teenage dog, please do get in touch by contacting me here.
