12 months

[ironicname]

Ddog is nearly one year and over the last few months has become increasingly hard work.

When in the garden she barks incessantly, when in the house she is either jumping on and mouthing the toddler or finding contraband to chew (Anthony within reach:
This has resulted in a situation where she is kept inn the kitchen until the children are in bed.

Will she calm down? The puppy stage was ok, but this boisterousness is very wearing.

All day? In the kitchen all day? For behaving like a normal puppy?

To be fair, it's a bit living space and we are there quite a lot. But she can't be in another room as she just goes nuts.

I can't leave her to roam as she makes a bee line for the toddler.

Why would you get a dog if you won't allow it to act like a dog?

What sort of dog? What sort of training and exercise do you do?

I thought that mouthing was a an absolute no? None of our other dogs have done this.

Also, our other dogs haven't been so intent on constantly running off and chewing anything they know they they wouldn't have.

I was looking for help and advise, can anyone help?

@Wolfiefan

She is walked on the lead everyday, at different times and for different kinds of walks. Our behaviourist observers her and said that due to her prey drive and nose that we should keep her on the lead for the time being.

I was expecting her to have begun to calm down just a little, but some days she's just hard work. I expect that it's just time and I will not give up on her.

I just wondered what other people's experiences are, is 12 months usually hard work?

What sort of dog?
Can you use a longline or find a safe space?
Brain games? Tire her mentally.

What breed of dog. This is important as people can then indicate ways to work with their instincts.

Also depending on the breed they may be fully or just starting the adolescent phase which is another time just like the puppy phase where you need to be training all the time to reinforce behaviour.

Things like teaching them to talk (bark) then a quiet command might be useful. I haven't done this as I had no need but I know other people who have with great success. Also helpful would be for you to look up settle commands so she can settle in rooms with you.

Thing is, she’s not likely to start behaving how you want in other rooms if you’re not working on her behaving that way in the other rooms...

I mean, yes she’s probably bang in the middle of teenage brattiness, but dependant on breed it could be another 2 years before she properly calms down and 2 years shut in one room isn’t going to improve her behaviour...

My dog and youngest child are the same age. So I have the teenage dog stage at same time as child's toddler stage.

I basically really disliked my dog (cocker spaniel) from aged 9m to about 2y. From 2 we started people bonding.

Difficulty was dog nicking toddler toys. We had to get really on the ball about not leaving any toys (at all) on the floor. Ever. Difficult when you have a toddler, but doable.

We had a dog/child gate on kitchen door. Dog always put in there when food was around. Because couldn't trust dog to not take food from a child. Aside from that we trained and tried and played and had a mega frustrating 14 months with adolescent dog. But we did come out the other side and now my 4yo dog is wonderful and loved by everyone.

Oh and mouthing. Mine did that until about 2yo. As long as not biting, it wasn't a problem for us. Just redirect to a dog toy.

Properly* bonding

What kind of dog and how much exercise are you giving it?

At 12 months dogs need a good two walks a day, ideally with a chance for them to go off lead and run.

Mine is nearly two and if he doesn't get enough exercise he still goes silly. Dogs need to get out regularly and explore - sniffing, running, peeing, marking and meeting other dogs and people are all really important things for your dog to do. They need stimulation and to experience new things.

I'm not surprised he goes bonkers at home if he only gets lead walks and is confined to one room of the house. Up the exercise and increase his freedom. If he's mouthing and chewing things he shouldn't, you need to look at your management of the space he's in. Put things up and away out of his reach and buy him chew toys. Stuff a Kong and freeze it. Give him things like bones, pigs ears, pizzle sticks, stag bars etc. so he has something to occupy himself with.

Young dogs left to their own devices will find their own entertainment!

We've got Kongs, stuffed bones, pizzles etc.

She really can't be allowed off the lead as her recall is terrible. Our trainer came on a couple of walks and recommended that she stay on the lead as she was going further and further for longer and longer. We really do try and mix up her walks to stimulate her very powerful nose and we have a long lead.

She is loved and we do take her into the living room, but she has to be supervised by and adult, so most of the time she is in the kitchen, but not on own all day.

I think that she must be having a teenage moment, but it feels more like having a toddler. It sounds as if patience, time and consistency are going to get us through.

Most of the time she’s in the kitchen and she’s never allowed off lead. No wonder she’s playing up.

What breed OP?

I have a hunting breed (working cocker) and lead walks bore him. We don't even walk far when off lead as he wants to hunt. We therefore do things like chasing balls but also hunting them out in the undergrowth. This is much more fun than walking and you can do that on a long lead which will also help with recall as you will be more exciting hiding and helping them to hunt out a ball (or other item) .

Other things to think about is scent work. Again this can be done outside on long lines and will be hard work for her.

You still haven't said what breed she is.

I have a hunting dog (beagle) and we have to be careful where he's off-lead, but he still gets the chance to go out and run. We go to the beach regularly, or you can hire enclosed fields so he gets a chance to run about.

I don't think it's fair to keep a young dog on the lead all the time. If you don't trust her recall then use a longline so she still has some freedom to roam. Lead walks are boring for most dogs. They need more stimulation and exercise than that. They're not designed to plod along at our pace.

How many walks a day does she get and how long? If you insist on keeping her on the lead then you need to massively increase the length of the walks she gets I'm afraid.

It really depends, you need to give more information.

Some dogs are mouthy because they are stressed. This can continue to 2-3 years old and they need many, many chews and appropriate things to mouth in order to vent their stress. You also need to explore the underlying causes of her stress. Lead walks are good, but it would be better if you could find an enclosed safe space for her to run loose, or try running with her. Agility or some other course (flyball, treillball, etc) might be fun for her.

Has the problem come on suddenly? That might indicate a physical cause. My latest dog was very easy as a puppy, didn’t chew anything but at 9mo he started stealing food, chewing everything and eating inappropriate items. Almost a year down the line we now know he has serious gastrointestinal problems and the eating was a way to relieve the pain.

Sorry - she's a cross - beagle and a poodle. I'm not sure if she's a stubborn poodle or a clever beagle?

We do use a long lead, but I'm going to look into the enclosed lead as per suggestions on this thread.

We have a large, very mature garden, so she does get out there as much as the weather allows too (she's a diva about the rain).

Enclosed field.

The worst time for our beagle when it came to recall was around 12 months of age!

We let him off for a good run at the beach a good couple of times a week - he can't go anywhere except the sea so he's quite safe. He runs, chases his ball, swims and generally exhausts himself. I find that combined with two daily walks the rest of the week is absolutely fine.

We also do scent work at home and in the garden - scatter his kibble in the lawn for him to find, hide treats around the living room and get him to pick which hand the food is in. Feeding him from lick mats, slow feeders, kongs and snuffle mats helped too!