What was the 'teenage' phase like for you?

[Sprockerdilerock]

I have a 7 month old sprocker whose has suddenly turned into a lot a bit of a loose cannon seemingly overnight.

After thinking we had cracked recall it has suddenly gone to shite and he is back on the long lead after too many incidents of running off and refusing to come back.

He is an absolute dream around the house, so I'm wondering is this likely to go downhill too as he wont be burning off as much energy on his walks due to the lead? Mostly just likes to potter around after me, lying on his comfy mat by the french doors watching over the garden or gnawing away at something!

I'd also love to know what age was the most difficult for people - our trainer suggested 5-6 months was the hard bit and we were as he was still pretty good then. I've seen elsewhere online that adolescence starts at around 9 months, in which case we havent even got started! And also what your pups were like!

TIA

Balls o was going to rant about my actual awful teenager! The dog was a synch in comparison 😂

Recall went at 6 months of age along with increasing stroppy behaviour. He peaked at being a pain in the arse at 8-9 months of age but started to get better the closer he got to 1 years old. He still had his moments afterwards but more infrequent.

Ours is 9 months and so far hasn't been much trouble at all though his recall isn't great. I can't remember any teenage phases with previous dogs but that could be rose coloured glasses.

Recall disappeared at 6/7 months. It started to get easier when he was 9/10 months, but he still had selective deafness at times. Looking back on it, he was on a long line for the majority of our walks between 7 months to 1 year. He was much more reliable by 13/14 months old. I actually felt confident about letting him off lead, and walks became a lot more enjoyable.

Mine's nearly 2 and still an arse at times. Perfect in the house but a rude greeter (working on it) and became reactive to certain dogs mid puberty. We are cracking down on training again now lockdown is ending.
Selective deafness if she sees anything to chase so long line most of the time!

Tangledtresses Snap! My dog presents me with some challenges...but compared to my ds1 she's a breeze. He was truly vile !!! Thankfully he turned human again at around 17 but it was a grim few years...

I found my dc easier I have to say!

we are on 8 months (cocker) and he is also a dream in the house but a bolshy boy outside. A lot of the things we thought we had trained well like not jumping up, not greeting every dog, have completely gone. He knows exactly how to recall but you can actually see him weighing up the decision as to whether to come back.

our biggest issue by far though is that he will go too far away now. Gone are the days where he actively checked where we were. Now if we enter a field and he sees a dog the other end (or a squirrel/rabbit/bird) he will be off and the problem with that, is that even though he's whistle trained, he then is too far away to hear. So he's on a longline again all the time. The jumping up I know he will stop (i just spent a day turning my back and he didn't do it this morning). The greeting every dog is a problem and even though we have a biothane long line, you lose control when they are 20 foot away so he's hard to hold onto if he's determined so that means we are only walking outside of busy hours at the moment or in much quieter places where I can see dogs approaching. I will spend a few days doing what we did when he was small and making him sit and not greet (then treat) but I just haven't had the time and wanted to deal with the recall first!

on the plus side, I've started teaching him more hand signals and he's been really receptive to the training - he's learning quicker than he did when he was younger so I'm hoping this is a good sign and he starts gundog training next friday (thank god!)

he is properly bolshy now though - i didn't let him chase a squirrel this morning and he whined and cried at it!

Mine grew out of it and started to settle at 14 months old. I suppose it depends on the breed too.

You all give me hope! We’ve been tearing our hair out with ours (7mo rescue had her a little over a month). Her recall is non existent, she will actively go the other way when we call her, if we want to take her out we have to use reverse psychology and pretend to go without her before she will come and have her lead put on. She is often reactive on lead and we daren’t let her off any more except on play dates with our good friends’ dog when there’s no one else around, because she just will not come back. And worst of all, she has a terrible habit of running up to a dog wanting to play and if it isn’t interested barking incessantly and really annoying both dog and owner. So she is now on lead all the time and it’s so frustrating! We are just hoping she will calm down a bit when she gets a bit older but wow it’s hard work! Our last dog was a chilled out dream so this has been a baptism of fire

It's a right of passage for most dog owners, you will all get through it.

A trailing long line is your best tool - not a long lead that you hold. Get the longest one you can, the dog gets to to run around but you can enforce a stop and encourage / reinforce recall by stepping on the line.

Modern training lines make this easier as they are flat - back in the day we used rope washing lines!

Some dogs genuinely are easier to train than others, my first was a dream (35yrs ago - eek!)- then we got a second, different breed, and I realised that I wasn't this instinctively good trainer- my first dog was an instinctively good learner 🥴.

I now have 3 - an elderly reactive who can't be off lead (brilliant recall until he sees one of his triggers, so I can't risk it, he attacks un neutered males), a 3yr old who was reliably off lead from the get go, didn't have much of a teenage blip and (pre covid) was in advanced obedience doing scent work, long stays, distance control etc, and a 2yr old who it took me 18 months to finally get off a long line and crack recall. There's nothing quite like a dog with an attitude to teach you a bit of humility 😉.

You have to work with the dog you've got, and they are all different, but the trailing long line is the key to teaching recall while letting the dog have exercise. With some dogs it's hard work, but so worth it to have relaxed off lead walks. My youngest often now looks at the dogs across the park, thinks about running over, then turns and runs back, sits in front of me for his treat 😎, I don't even have to call him.

Get the tastiest treat you can and ONLY use it for teaching recall. Roast chicken, liver cake, squeezy cheese. You have to make coming back to you the BEST thing ever!