Snapping

[Whitepots]

Our 11 month old puppy is trying my patience somewhat...

He is, 95% of the time, a happy, fun and affectionate pup. However, over the last few weeks he has started to growl/snap at us. It's mainly, but not exclusively at DC (age 9), although there has been a distinct improvement with this. DC is being firmer and calmer with him, and perhaps a little less of a playmate, and he seems to be responding to that. DC is also getting more involved with the training too.

It happens rarely with me, which may be as I am chief walker and feeder etc.

I'd say it happens more often after a walk, so when he is already excited - perhaps too excited. There are also some days when he seems very susceptible to outside noise eg the bin men arriving etc. Although I'd say this too is much better than it was.

This afternoon he reacted with lots of barking when DC came through a particular door, and he wasn't expecting it. (He had a particularly lively walk today, and had a zoomie when we got home, so perhaps was still calming down from that).

I am hoping this is just adolescence, and hormones, and it will pass... Sometimes this feels more challenging than having a baby! I'd be grateful for more experienced views though.

I grew up with dogs and don't remember this phase, possibly as I wasn't the one responsible for them, and of course each dog is different.

Our 8 month old does a v similar thing with my 10 year old always when over excited it seems - so would be interesting to see what is suggested

Also interested as our 9 ish month old rescue pup also does a similar thing when excited, gets a bit nippy!

Our dog was like this too. Once he got to a certain level of excitement it's like the adrenaline kicked in and he just took things too far.
For us thought it used to happen mainly during play at which I stopped all play immediately and sent him to his bed. Not as a punishment but to give him time to calm down.
I also learnt to recognize when he was getting over stimulated and stop things before they escalated.

Our dog too is very barky if someone comes in unannounced. This one I find tougher as on one hand I want him to bark if a stranger comes in our house but the problem is he does it with people he knows well.
I've been sending him to his bed in this instance too. He gets a treat for going and we leave him to calm down.

Overstimulation in teenage dogs is definitely a thing - remember, they still need a fair amount of sleep and down time at that age.

What does his routine look like in terms of exercise, training, sleep and diet?

Thanks all, and it is interesting (re-assuring) to hear that I'm not alone.

Thinking about it he is often worse after a wet walk - either when it's raining or there are lots of puddles to jump in - he seems to find them particularly exciting and will quite often have a zoomie when we get home after that, as he did yesterday.

We were doing two 30 min walks a day but had to cut that back to one on lead 20 min walk a day as he had a sore hip. We've gradually built that up again and he is generally having one off lead walk a day. Thinking about it now I think we had less snapping with less/quieter walks, so it may well be overstimulation.

He sleeps overnight in his crate. Usually from about 11pm-6.30/7am, but will take himself off to sleep in the day. When I'm working he will spend quite a lot of time in his basket next to me. I'm not working this week, so possibly he's getting less sleep than he would normally.

I'm just moving him onto an adult kibble, but he eats well.

Training wise we do this regularly, but it is really as and when.

I think I may experiment with quieter walks for a couple of days and perhaps more brain enriching things at home.