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?

Spot2 (11 months) chews. She picks up bits of plastic hides under the sofa and chews them. And it's maddening, it's the noise more than anything. Anyway, took my own advice the other day and bought some chews. Previously she seemed to like these. So just now I've dragged her out from under the sofa, confiscated the bottle top she was chewing and gave her a dog chew. Came back later, she's had a bit of a go at the chew, then abandoned it in favour of a fruit juice carton which she has demolished and strewn round the room!! Feeling like I can't win at the moment. I'm sure they get to an age where they don't chew so much, but obviously it's not yet!

Hi, I'll join in. I've got a Newfoundland who'll be 1 next week. She's mostly quiet now that she's had her first season, but holy crap is she stubborn and demanding! The two biggest problems we have are that she still jumps up (at 40+kg...) when meeting people and when my 4 year old is playing outside, and when she wants something she paws at us, which really hurts.

We've worked on the Four on the Floor training from a Facebook group but that only lasts about 30 seconds then she's jumping up again. GAH. It got better briefly at about 7 months and now she's back into it.

I know this is terrible but I’m glad it’s not just me. I’ve been feeling like a terrible dog owner.

To be honest I feel the same about kids playing up in shops as well as the dogs!!

well the barking tips are:......

when dog starts barking, distract away, and THEN reward for "quiet" command.
As long as you don t reward them when they are actually barking, but instead leave it till they are quiet, or interested in something else, they will learn the quiet command. So you have to be there waiting with treats (I use kibble from meal ration) and a really fun toy like a squeaky one, the minute they start barking at something or someone, it is usually associated with fear and high alert, so you need to bring them down from that (with your voice, cheery reassurance (not whiny voice) and a toy)

She said the longer they bark and even worse start moving in response to the "threat" the higher the adrenalin rush and the more difficult to stop the barking reinforcement.

I've actually tried it a few times today, and it has worked. And he has stopped barking at my ds2 completely (they don't get on particularily well - ds2 is 17 and not keen on dogs) because we made a big thing yesterday to positively reinforce his prescence and footsteps. today he came down and dog was completely relaxed. No barking. Anyway we will see.

It is the fear stage apparently at 8 months, when they are more wired to be frightened at things they previously didn't mind. So desensitisation etc needed as well.

She also said in bad situations (like delivery man and opening door), use the lead to stop them rushing over to the "threat" as well as positive distraction and good vibes from treat. At least I think she said that, I may be getting all my advice mixed up. Maybe the lead was for jumping up at mealtimes!

well, the jumping up advice was to reinforce the sit command. with kibble. But at mealtimes, never ever do any training with kibble when seated at table. Unless you put it in a kong and train them to go to their baskets or corner of the room. Basically she said, give dog a task at mealtimes, which involves going to another part of the room and settling down and probably chewing something, if you don't want to put them in another room or crate them. which is also a possibility if they are in nap mode...

My pup also adores other dogs. I do a lot of greeting on lead now, and then moving off. Occasionally he gets to play a bit with another dog in the park, but I'm finding he likes to do other things too, lots of sniffing. And the supervised play is getting harder, as he is more boisterous and likely to run off, I need to find exactly the right playmate for him who isn't going to cause trouble, knock us all over or lead him off on a wild goose chase or worse still dislike him intensely!!!. these perfect doggy companions for five mins playing do exist, and I suppose he gets a little play every day one way or another off lead, and certainly lots of sniffing and greeting out and about.

My dog should be all grown up now but I’m still waiting for that “He’ll settle down” miracle. He’s much harder now than he was as a little pup.
Latest thing is dashing off after another dog, barking like crazy. His recall is usually good, this comes out of the blue at random other dogs. So embarrassing!

WigglePup (an aussie shepherd) is 11 months, and his once wonderful recall has gone. He's always been very focussed on other dogs and desperate to play (the only time he really pulls on the lead) but we could call him back (even if it took us screaming WOOOOOOO like idiots and jumping up and down/running away).

The other day he saw a younger pup playing nicely with a ball, so he decided he wanted to play too. He ignored his own favourite ball, sprinted straight past me, and ran to the other pup, who apparently didn't like bigger dogs and ran away. Off the field, through an estate and over a road (back home according to the owner). WigglePup thought this was a CRACKING game, much more exciting than listening to us, and chased after it. By the time I caught up (after twisting my ankle slipping while sprinting on the wet grass ) the owner and puppy had vanished inside (I don't know which house) and WigglePup came trotting out of the estate, good as gold, and complied with a distance 'down' command to stop him running over the road again. Git.

He's back on a training lead and we're back to basics with the Total Recall book. Ive only seen the other owners once since, but they were at the other end of the field so I haven't been able to apologise which I feel awful about.

Would anyone like to join me on this thread please? Also, can anyone who was previously on this come back and tell me about your wonderfully behaved older dogs now...PLEASE?!🙏🏻

@Opoly54. What adolescent nightmare do you have. I've a just over 1 year old Dalmatian.

A 9 month old terrier. I’ve started another thread about him as I was lying in bed last night listening him whining over bedtime and regretting ever wanting a dog in the first place! (I’m half joking!).

We have a working cocker spaniel who turned 1 yesterday. Her lead walk is getting better but her previously good recall is none existent.
When she’s on a longline she just goes right to the end of it and dicks about pulling and trying to chase birds. It really affects my (not great) back so it’s just short lead for her at the moment.
She goes to daycare and behaves beautifully there as she just follows what the big dogs do.
I do occasionally let her off on the beach if it’s quiet and she’ll stay around me, playing ball for maybe 15 minutes then she spots a bird and just goes. She’s so fast.
She always comes back after 5 minutes or so of me panicking.
I so hope she goes back to normal soon. It’s like if there’s a bird she can’t even hear me.
I love to let her have a good run around but I just darent!

Mine is 11 months and won’t stop chewing everything he shouldn’t have. He steals things out of the laundry basket or off the clothes horse - most of my pants look like some kind of crotchless sex aids - and off the coffee table and the other day he jumped on the kitchen table too! I didn’t know he could jump that high. Is it ridiculous to be considering buying a new higher and less accessible laundry basket and a pulley so drying clothes can be on the ceiling instead of trying to teach him not to do it? We’ve tried and tried ‘leave’ and ‘drop’ but he’ll only do either if you have treats and will deliberately go and steal clothes when he wants attention. He has heaps of toys and chews and we do play with him!

@Notsafetogo have you hidden from your spaniel? Or run away from him? That really helps with mine. If we do it occasionally he keeps tabs on where we are and my recall issues are more that he’s in full view playing with another dog/chasing around hunting rabbits/standing knee-deep in the sea but isn’t coming close enough to be caught and I want to get on with the walk/go home!

@MaryLennoxsScowl the only place I dare let her off is the beach as I can pretty much see her when she runs miles away! So there’s not really anywhere to hide. I do do that in the garden sometimes but there are only two places I can hide and so she knows straight away!! I’m just not brave enough to let her off in the woods. I wish someone would make a really secure dog wooded area so we could try it. She’s my first dog and I may be just a massive coward!!
Ours also steals socks to get attention. If we ignore her with them she comes right in front of us and dances with it and tosses it in the air and generally tries to provoke us. She’s an arse!

I can’t remember if it was the total recall book or the trainer we went to who suggested it, but we did rapid changes of direction - wait for them to set off, then walk in the opposite direction and don’t call them, wait until they notice. You could do that on the beach? Then when they catch up throw a treat to them, and then walk until they stop looking at you and do it again. They learn they have to keep tabs on where you are so they don’t roam so far away.

@MaryLennoxsScowl Those are great ideas. I’m on it.

We’ve joined the Absolute Dogs Training Academy thing online. Which is lots and lots of games to play to train different things. It’s quite good, all working well in the house. It’s just those goddamn pesky birds!
Thanks xx I wish I had chewing and knicker biting advice for you...I’ll look on Training Academy, see if there’s anything on there about it!

Prettypup is now 17 months old.
Wilful...fun...bouncy...

Recall needs a overhaul, lockdown has not been good for that.
Other stuff there has been improvement, she is much better on lead. The use of a nose loop helped there.
She calms down a lot quicker now.
I'm looking forward to doing more work with her dog trainer.
Biggest issue to crack is separation.

oh and to ignore squirrels!