8 month old pups - how's everyone getting on?

[swizzlestix]

Just wondering how others are doing. Thankfully the razor sharp teeth are now long gone. He will occasionally nip when over excited at times but nothing at all like the savagery of young pups biting which we realised was normal thankfully !
A bit worried how he'll be when we suddenly have people visiting the house again ( may have some family on Boxing Day) I think the excitement will be off the scale and he'll find it hard to settle. I'm trying to suggest we meet outside as safer and less stressful all around.
We do adore him but there's def new challenges at this age!

Our pup is now 15 months so we're through the horrors of adolescence. He was awful at 8 months old though.

We'll be at my brother on boxing day but we're leaving pup at home. Its just a recipe for carnage! We'll only be a couple of hours and we'll give him a good walk before we go.

That's really reassuring to hear that. Yep a real nightmare/ pain in the arse at times at the mo - usually late aft/ early eve so we're looking forward to calmer times!

I’m with you on this one. My lab is nearly 8 months and she can be a right pain! It feels like we’ve never done a day of training with her sometimes as she’s jumping up and on everyone and everything and getting over excited. She’s started mouthing again too. Anyone else’s pup started mouthing again? It’s lucky we love her or she’d be on eBay. We are having a very quiet Christmas so at least we don’t have to inflict her on anyone else

Mine is a year old now. Apart from not being friendly with strangers hes been ok. He's full of energy and has two good walks a day. He only jumps up playfully at people he knows. I was lucky as he slept through all night since I got him from rescue.

Glad to hear I'm not alone! Our lurcher is the same age and still a bit of a handful.

YES - we have exactly the same issue with the mouthing. It had calmed down, but it seems to have increased again. She jumps up at everyone also. It does seem that bigger dogs take longer to mature than smaller ones, so I guess we've just got to truck on through it....it is exhausting though

Ours is 6 months and seem to have gone backwards in the last week. Which is a challenge 😬

You're all definitely not alone! Ours has become a right monkey, yesterday morning he managed to get the plastic radiator knob off and sat chewing it. The jumping up is a problem we're working on and we try to only give him attention when he's got all 4 paws on the floor. Think it's gonna take a while though as he literally cannot contain his excitement. We do love him dearly but I am dreading family visiting Boxing Day!

Ours is definitely starting to enter the teenage phase. She’s becoming much more stubborn and some of our training seems to have gone out the window if she doesn’t want to do something!

Any tips for how to get her to sleep longer gratefully received- am so over these 5.30/6am wake ups! I dream of a dog who sleeps until we come down in the morning. How do I get there?

Ours is a year now and really settled down. All good apart from the very loud bark.

She had a season at 6 months and a false pregnancy which really altered her personality. Anxious, scared of other dogs, grumpy.

@BarkHoneyBark - this gives me hope that we might only have a few more months of this.

It doesn't help that a lot of my friends seem to have much smaller dogs that seem to have become a lot calmer earlier. I'd heard this about maturity, but yesterday I was out on a walk and the difference between my friends tiny cavapoo and my big lurcher was striking. Mine is still challenging in a puppy-ish way whereas hers was so 'easy' you almost didn't notice it was there! Must admit, it didn't make me feel great!

I hear you! I think when a small dog is being a pain, because their physical presence is smaller they def feel less of a pain!

Mine is still a puppy brain in a big strong Labrador body which doesn’t make for a great combo when she’s jumping up and knocking things around. Trying to be consistent with her training and some things are great and others have a long way to go. We’ve just got to keep on trucking I think. @pistachioicecream is your pup in a crate? Ours sleeps downstairs in a crate with the door closed and generally sleeps until about 7:30 unless someone gets up earlier. A tip I was told when she was little was not to get her out of her crate as soon as I come downstairs. I tend to put the kettle on and potter around for a few minutes in an aloof way before I let her out. Not sure if this has made a difference but could be worth a try. Good luck.

My boy is 8 months, no issues with biting but I have had to work on his braveness around strangers and children. Which is made harder because of social distancing but we are getting there