Adolescence

[fessmess]

My 14-15 month old standard poodle is driving me nuts. Ignoring me, chewing stuff and being really demanding for attention. Is this adolescence? How long does this last for? My dh told me this is a very common age for re/homing and I see why.

Dogs mature at different rates with larger dogs maturing later. Mine is a very small cocker and I think standard poodles are larger than him so I would expect teenagerdom to be later than mine which was at its worst around 8 months of age. Even now at 14 months he has his moments so is still maturing.

I would go back to basics with training to reinforce everything that your dogs knows (but chooses to ignore) and buy in lots of and to get you through it

be firm and consistent. We found with ours that if you give an inch they take a mile!!!

our dog is 13 months.... he drives me crazy at times ignoring me. Its the way he will look at me telling him "no" or "leave" and then doing it anyway cos he's a teenager and doesn't have to listen to mum!!

When I said how lovely my dog was at 5 months, @BiteyShark warned me that the teenage phase would soon arrive.

Now at 8 months it is in full swing! She is not listening to anything. I am having to put her back on her lead more on walks as I can't trust her around people, dogs or anything remotely exciting 🙈

She still behaves pretty well at home but does try to push her luck now and again

We're being firm and consistent and clinging to the hope that as she matures we will emerge through the other side with a lovely dog I'm hoping it doesn't take too long!

At 19 months we still get the hesitation and weighing up pros and cons of ignoring me. This despite loads of recall and focus training. She is very good at home and out and about on lead but I still manage walks carefully. Tends to be much better on unfamiliar walks and with strange dogs.

Mine is approaching 8mths & I think we're adolescence too. She's super switched on & picks things up really quickly. So I'm fairly sure she knows what she's meant to be doing...but as you say, she definitely weighs up the pros & cons. She's back on lead for majority of walks (& long training line in open spaces so she can have a run around) Some days she'll do a lightening response recall and I want to cry with joy but I do get terribly anxious about taking her out at the moment as there's no telling what the mood will be!! Good luck x

Ugh we are going through this. Madam is now 11 months and a right pain in the arse.

I've already had to bin 3 of my children's brand new Christmas presents...cos of her chewing.

Her recall has gone from 10/10 to 2/10 if she spots another dog..

She's clingy and very annoying at the moment. Cannot trust her at all.

She's even regressed slightly with her toilet training which is a pain as she was completely housebroke!!

I've bought an adaptil plug in to help her calm down slightly. I think it's helping. She's being walked as long as we can manage and we are going to set an area up for her out of the room. If she gets caught chewing, she's put out to her area.

Trying to reinforce good= cuddles, bad= being ignored

That's interesting soub as mine has also had a couple of accidents and seems stressed too. It is reassuring to know we are not alone.