Can we have an "older puppy" support thread? [grin]

[Nettleskeins]

My puppy is seven months. He is a poodle bichon cross, and we are riding the roller coaster at the moment. So many improvements in his behaviour and then some new behaviours to throw us!

The latest is frenzied barking at the cat next door and attempts to frighten our rather miserable convalescent cat that he wants to play with.

Being woken early because the room is too light, we have had to install blackout.

Insatiably interested in food, and keeps trying to steal things when we sit down for example with a piece of toast.

Jumping up when food is being prepared.

Nipping me to tell me he wants a walk (this is in the afternoon)

Tell me I'm not alone!

pluses are, perfectly housetrained, very friendly and sleeps everywhere. Can potter and does not need fussing over.
Brilliant on long walks
Very good at playing with other dogs
Excellent recall.

Any tips for dog behaving like a total dick when he sees other dogs? He just wants to play but acts like a total moron.

Any tips for dog behaving like a total dick when he sees other dogs? He just wants to play but acts like a total moron.
This.

My pup is 4 months so not quite at teenage stage yet. Am trying to train behaviours I want as much as possible before it kicks in especially recall although despite him not being quite at teenagerdom yet, he has just discovered a love of digging up my lawn/flowerbeds/gravelled path bits and I was just getting to the stage of being able to relax in the garden a bit while he chewed on bones and dried up bits of dead animal.

I too would like tips on how to get your dog to behave well with other dogs.

So far I've been trying to mostly only let him play with bigger older dogs with good manners who don't take any crap from him. There's one dog though I see regularly who is much more placid and puts up with too much crap from him. I keep on recalling him off and letting him calm a bit before letting him play again - trying to distract him with balls etc so they can play together a bit better but if he's not listening and being an arse then I get him back on the lead and we walk off and he doesn't get to play anymore.

I've noticed that after his total arsehole episodes when I do finally get him back that his pupils are huge and dilated - it's like he's had doggy crack or something! I'm trying to watch for early warning signs now and get him back on the lead before he learns that the rewards of being an arsehole will far outweigh anything I can offer in the way of bits of liver or cheese!

I'm lucky to have a large open flood plain nearby where I can walk him offlead so I can see other dogs/people a long way off giving me time to get him back on the lead before we're close so he doesn't go bounding up. He still forgets all his loose lead stuff though with other dogs around and pulls to get to them. I just stand still when he does this. If he does look at me at all then I reward him. Mostly he ignores me though until the dog is far far away and then finally looks at me I'm hoping that consistency and age will help on this.

Imho doggy play looks like making a complete idiot of yourself...it doesn't look genteel or polite. It is chasing in circles, playbiting, wrestling, submission. Having had kittens that played like that I don't think it is particularily over the top just a stage, as long as the characters are well matched in size and age. I would be worried about dogs that don't play enough with other dogs at the right age..

I would never think it works unless it is off lead and both dogs' owners agree and monitor it.

Dd looked after dpup today whilst I was out all day with ds2. She looked shattered . And interestingly/sadly he doesn't seem to be in a very good mood..now. Possibly overtired with too much attention to boot. Too little off lead perhaps (she said there were picnickers and it was impossible to cope otherwise )

I think you're right Nettleskins and it works best when the dogs are well matched. But in time sometimes they seem to also learn to adjust their behaviour to play with dogs they're not so well matched with. My previous hound seemed to know that small dogs found him too scary when he chased them and so he always encouraged small dogs to chase him instead. Used to look hilarious to see my big fast lurcher tearing around with a small pack of fluff-balls chasing him.

Agree on the magic of walks and sleep. I rescued my previous hound after he'd been given up to rescue aged 8 months because he was too much of a handful and the neighbours had complained about his barking but it was like all he needed was the chance to have a good off-lead run about and a bit of a sniff and then he slept better and his behaviour was transformed. The rescue thinks he'd never been walked before as he acted like he'd never seen lorries or traffic.

well, today I had a terrible shock but it is quite a good reminder to train train train. Ddog bolted in the park, a new park which is very straightforward but quite open and ran out into the road, in the two minutes I talked to another dog owner who had some very tall bouncy dogs. He ran, and I assumed he was playing chase but not on this occasion, he was clearly playing flee flee. I searched for him, assumign he was in the dustbin area near the gate...Then he was walking happily on the pavement on the other side of the road from when he had gone out the gate My instinct was to scream his name, which was a big mistake because he then crossed the road towards me, when what I should have been screaming was sit sit or wait wait. Luckily it was a quiet road, but an accident could have all too easily happened.

So in future, I'm never going to assume that he is safe off lead unless I am actually watching him like a hawk and we are nowhere near a gate. he will come back if I call, but that is lethal it is means crossing a road.

I've never seen him spooked by another set of dogs like that before, I think it was the new place as well that didn't help. They were all perfectly friendly but just big.

He wasn't actually near the gate when I let him off lead, but they cover a lot of distance .

He has been as good as gold since then. But then got very upset by a fox. Clearly A lot of hormones surging.

When mine was in his teens with sketchy recall I drove to places of wide open countryside where there was miles and miles of land before you hit any roads for that very reason. If he decided to run after anything at least I knew he wouldn't be crossing any roads and as we had taught recall to a whistle we could use it over long areas. Parks were just too small and far too distracting at that stage

Glad he was ok Nettles. It can be heart stopping in those moments.

Ours is a small cross-breed and small dogs mature long before the giants but he showed no adolescent behaviour until nearly a year old. Even then it was not teenage strops but fear of many things as he grew more independent.
Tonight he’s growling at reflections in the window. I’ve already moved all the furniture so he can’t see out to bark at passers by. Must I also draw the curtains long before dark because of reflections?

This last week has been interesting.

I started training the dog again with a bit more attention to detail!

We've had better Wait at the curb and Go when we move.
We've had much better peeing before going on a walk (my fault for not thinking of this one) makes him pull less on the lead on the way somewhere or lie down and refuse to move at all"
We 've had recalling dog from dicey situations by keeping cool, and using body language, rather than chasing him...
We've had not chasing him to put the lead on him but summoning him treating him and then putting lead on a few minutes later. Dog trainer said never to call him and then put lead on straight away or they will see recall as an end to fun activities.

We've also had very good afternoon sleeps in his darkened quiet room and no problems if I go out for a bit or am elsewhere in house.

On the other hand we have had more barking at random things, like a flapping sign or a dog prescence in a house when we pass when he cannot see the dog

Not sure whether to start giving him two meals a day either, he seems very keen on lunch atm..and has three meals, last meal at 5 or 530/6 depending on circs.

He has been trimmed quite radically too, and looks very bare, cannot wait for his fur to grow back. He seems to like being free and nimble though.

He is asleep now on the wooden floor, refusing the sofa, the dog bed or the folded cotton blanket. I think heat regulation is a big thing for him which is why he turned against the crate .

Any tips on best bedding which your furry dog will actually sleep on?

And he sat very nicely under table in a cafe today, surrounded by smells and small children. And met and greeted two other dogs on the lead without going berserk..Seems that a long walk first helps the frustrated greeting issue.