Adolescent Dog Survival thread anyone?

[TooOldForThisWhoCares]

Apologies if the puppy thread is doing this job too but I feel bad posting on there with my 10 month ddog issues, like "yep it's still shit in 8 months time"! Just wondering if anyone would like to congregate here with their tales of woe and hopefully hints and tips of surviving the teenage dog years?

I have a 10 month old staffy cross rescue bitch. She is HIGH ENERGY. We got her at around 6 months, completely untrained. Our first dog. We must have been insane.

Lead walking is hit and miss.
We have jumping up and biting issues.
Recall is pretty good, maybe 85-90% (my hint on this is to take her out when she's hungry and she gets loads of the best treats to come back to).
Cats=terrible. Wants to chase my 2 resident cats constantly and they are separated all the time. This makes me really sad.

Anyone want to join in?

When I say biting, it is attention seeking nipping, not full on biting. Ignoring and leaving the room silently is starting to pay off with this after around 3 weeks of consistency.

I'll join in!! I've got two (yes TWO) miniature dachshunds that are about to turn one next week.
We have mostly come out the other side of biting and nipping playful behaviour, but recall and off lead walking with one is a total no no, so unfortunately that impacts on time available to do that with the other as we don't often have time to walk and train then separately. We've had the dog behaviourist in so we know what we NEED to do in terms of training... It's just SUCH slow progress! (Not helped by one pup being classified as agoraphobic, so just getting him out and coping with the world has been a major hurdle.... So getting him to deal with cyclists/moving cars/prams/an ant farting seems to be such a monumental mountain to climb!)

We still have regular shredding of bedding/sofa cushions/pens they shouldn't have got hold of. It's an endless routine...

The only plus side to having two is that I can see that despite them having had identical (and relatively strict) upbringings, the issues they have are totally different... Which reassures me it's not something I'VE done wrong, it's just their bonkers personalities 😂😂

God, I love them, but dachshunds are such stubborn little creatures and far far harder work than any of the spaniels I've ever had. And teenage dachshunds are a particular blend of awkwardness!!

I'll join! I have an eight month old male beagle.

He's okay most of the time - better off-lead than on but doesn't recall well around other dogs unfortunately. He pulls on the lead and won't wear a head collar or any kind so we're trying positive reward/loose lead training at the moment instead.

He's almost out of the bitey phase but he's now started barking at everything!

Hello both!

Ooh 2 daschunds and a beagle! We had dasch called Dave at our training class and he was a bit of a character..

Yes all training is so incredibly slow and it feels like one step forward 2 steps back in many ways, Bass. If you take your eye off the ball at all, bad habits just seem to come back instantly. It's exhausting!

Adaline, I've heard beagles are buggers for bad recall, so it sounds hopeful that maybe he'll grow out of the over excitement with other dogs and be ok? I have that too with mine but sometimes if I catch her early enough and distract her alllll the way past other dogs, either with cocktail sausages or a raggy tug toy thing, I can get her attention and prevent the dash for freedom. But if she meets a dog as giddy as her and I'm not able to get her attention quick enough then she's gone!

I also find it hard in the giddy dog situation to know if things are getting out of hand? Her hackles are sometimes up if it's particularly boisterous play and I freak out a bit about that but then I googled and it said it's not necessarily aggression or fear but high arousal/excitement? Either way I don't like it and it seems a time to get her away pronto. Any thoughts?

Adaline, I've been using a tube of soft cheese to encourage loose lead walking. I look like a idiot on walks but it works. I have it held down close to her and it keeps her (mostly) stuck to my side. She jist gets a tiny lick every few paces and I try to extend the number of steps i take before she gets some. Everything I do is food based! I'm not sure how to phase the treats out especially since things she learns seems to come and go so much.

Ah yes... The problem I find with walking now is where slightly naughty behaviour used to be laughed off by other dog walkers as 'cute' puppy behaviour, and am awareness they were learning. But now everyone looks and sees what they consider to be a fully grown dog (as big as a dachshund ever gets!) and therefore their tolerance to any naughty behaviour is virtually zero. I find myself forever calling ahead to warn approaching dog walkers that they're still puppies and can be a bit barky/unpredictable/overexcited (insert appropriate behaviour of the moment here)... But then I feel guilty if anyone hangs around long enough to stop and ask me how old they are and I have to admit they are almost a year!

I think I just thought I would have this behaviour lark sussed by now, and we did so well with all the other stuff like toilet training and sleeping through the night that I worry I took my eye off the ball too soon and relaxed before they were anywhere near fully trained!! Some days I can be so on it with the training and the treats and the positive reinforcements, but some days it all seems to go backwards and I get one 'unhelpful' comment in the park from a dog owner with a beautifully behaved older dog and I feel like crying! Am sure I doubled my workload with two puppies, but I keep setting myself the target date of 18months for everything to be perfect and settled... And the nearer I get to hitting the one year target, the more I worry I wont ever have two calm, grown up dogs at all 😂😂

I’lll join. 10 month old mix breed here, she is generally pretty good but is adult sized (and not small). So any puppy nonsense when out and about is a problem. She also can sprint quicker than any dog i’ve ever met, so whilst here recall is really good she could be quite a distance away (and already being a pain in the arse) before i’ve got the words out.

Can i join please? I've a 6.5 month old black cockerpoo, my first dog, who is generally a delight but I think just getting teenagey!

Bass, I started a thread about her: she wants to stay and play with any other dog that allows it (won't repeat the details) and another owner commented (and her comment was justified) but I just felt after the encounter that I was daft to get a dog, she'll never be trained, I just don't know what I'm doing......I really identify with that wanting to cry feeling!

Like yours, mine was a poppet to start with, easy to train, great at night, house trained quickly, and I think I just relaxed and assumed it would all be ok, rather than hard work for a while. Still, I've had some helpful and supportive comments (hope they help you too) and I've bought a book recommended re recall. So onwards and upwards, but any helpful tips, or maybe just knowing I'm not alone, will I'm sure be helpful.

Hello! More people! And their teenage dogs!

Yes I recognise that feeling of you think you've got it sussed and then son e other unwanted behaviour surfaces! It's really like a testing of boundaries. My dog is also great in terms of house trained and sleeps all night (she came that way luckily for us!) But the early evenings are torture. She's a total livewire for about 4 solid hours from 5pm onwards and we all have to take turns attempting to entertain her until she flops at 9pm (almost on the dot, every night). This is also when most of the silly bitey behaviour happens.

I look at calm, older dogs walking on lovely loose leads and think we'll never get there. Sigh.

Also jealous of "pub" dogs who snooze under the table at pubs or cafes. DDog dug a hole under one and ate some of the furniture at another

For loose lead walking I do a “with me” command -which she does she looks at me and walks with me but she has no understanding that I want her to stay that way not try and scamper off again.

The neighbourhood must be very bored with my incessant “Legodog, with me, Legodog, with me”. Not quite how to crack “and bloody well stay there until told differently”

I’ll join too! 9 month old GSD. I used to be so proud of his loose lead walking, but lately it’s all gone to pot, and he pulls like a bloody steam train!
I was determined to avoid head collars etc, and to ‘train him properly’ instead, but today I admitted defeat and ordered a ‘Canny Collar’.

Ours refused to walk on a head collar for ages at first. He now does it reluctantly but you can tell he doesn't like it. I find he walks best on collar and lead and not with a harness although he needs his harness for the car...

Is anyone else still at puppy class? We signed up for an intermediate group session but nobody else is interested so we get a private 1-2-1 for £10 a week at the moment. He loves it but he needs to learn to be better with other dogs on lead.

Does anyone have any advice on that? He's very vocal anyway (being a beagle) but always barks at other dogs when on lead - mainly because he wants to run and play and he can't!

I'll join! IV a 10 month old golden retriever and recall has disappeared completely with him, especially when he sees other dogs! He does pull on the lead but that's getting better with training. We go to a leadwork and recall class once a week, which is good.

Other thing is barking in the evenings (have had a previous thread on this and was given lots of help, tips and advice).

Also with having a retriever, he loves picking up things and running away with them, toilet roll, shoes, remote controls, socks, he hasn't quite mastered the retrieving the items back to me yet, more of a I'll leave them out in the garden

Adaline I'm just about to organise more training: we had some 1-2-1 early on. The trainer had another client with a similar aged puppy so we did some joint sessions to practise around other dogs. I guess that's the curse and the benefit of being the only person signed up, lots of attention but no one to practise with!

Yep - it's great for things like practising agility and getting him to focus on us - but he needs more practise around other dogs!

Unfortunately puppy classes don't seem to be a big thing in our area - our original class only had four puppies in! And the next closest is the nearly an hour away - not really possible with work sadly!

Having one of those mornings with puppy! Barking loads and just won't settle down. Is lying under the coffee table barking! he's had a good morning walk and training and play time this morning! Joys of adolescent puppies. Too early for maybe have instead

Finally

Oh dear, what age do we go up to?! My rascal is about 13 months and has worse 'puppy' behaviour than ever before. I'm coming back later to read all your posts, but for now, we're in please!

What a handsome boy! My dog has also been very barky this morning! It's windy here and I think that's set her off. Plus the neighbours have lots of coming and going today and she barks at them A LOT. She's gone out with the dog walker now. I'm normally at work on a Friday but off with war infection today.

Re: classes. We recently finished a 6 week dogs trust training course but I think I need to find another class. 6 weeks ain't going to cut It!

Er... ear infection, not war infection.

It's so comforting to realise we're not alone! Mine has actually had lots of compliments on his behaviour which helps somewhat but at home and when he's tired he can be a right little barking dictator!

Mines 18 months and won’t stop jumping on the kitchen benches and out of the window into the garden. If I shut the window she runs along the bench and smears dog nose snots allover the window as well as eating anything not locked away. I have no idea how she is even getting up there but my benches are covered in paw prints and mud about 10 times a day. Wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t a nearly 40kg GSD

Thankfully we have just come out of the wee everywhere phase, the chew the house up phase and the barking constantly phase. Hopefully this one too shall pass

Adaline, sharing the pain is always helpful!
Tropic, I fully expect ddog to be a "late" maturer! If that's a word! Some dogs I think it's 18 months to 2 years before they are considered out of adolescence.

Thanks for this thread, it is really helpful to know I'm not alone. We have had two walks off lead with much less running off (ball, treats, long line) and I feel more confident again (which probably helps too).

That said there weren't a lot of people about (perfect for me, but I do wonder: don't other people's dogs need walking in the wet?

And Adaline, we practised sitting and waiting so thanks for that idea. Oscardog is knackered now, lots of brain work and running!

My 11 month old springer/lab cross is busy practising hypnotising me into sharing cake, unfortunately it’s a mince pie so I’m not giving in.😆 Apart from his unfailing greed he’s a fairly well behaved pooch.

That is one Svengali expression right there! He's lovely, Blobby. But you lose points for eating mince pies in October