Teenage dogs are horrid aren’t they!

[3ormoredogs]

Please remind me that this will pass

Mines gone from almost perfectly behaved, putting my old dog to shame even to a hormone fuelled lunging barking lunatic with no recall whatsoever

Today’s activities consisted of lunging at every dog we have passed despite my offerings of ham/chicken for a nice sit. Chewing my bannister and wall when I was putting out the washing and spending the second walk trying desperately to puff himself up and cause trouble with another young male dog who was also doing the same on the other side of the field
He’s also woofed at just about everything that’s passed terrifying most of my small village in the process as he is not a small dog!

Previously he’s never even given dogs a second look so I’m presuming it’s hormones and the dreaded teenage phase, he’s 13 months and I thought we had escaped unscathed until now.

Trainer has been called and we are back to class this week. Only stopped 2 months ago as he was doing so well and we were finding it too boring.
It’s also back to single walks as him behaving like this and my other dog together are too much to handle which means 4 walks a day for me...joys!

Is anyone else in the same boat who wants to cry about it with me

Ahhh the teens 🥴

Courage mes amis! They do grow out of it. My youngest (27months) now RELIABLY comes to heel when called, in order to let walkers/runners/cyclists go past on a narrow lane. He LOOKS at other dogs across the field - then turns and comes to me for a treat - without being called. He's trained me well 🤣

I keep banging on about this - but a long (training) line, properly used, really is your friend. This youngster is a mini schnauzer and he was on and off it for a good 18months before it was consigned to the garage. I'm an experienced owner and this was the longest doggy teens I'd lived through. I was used to retrievers who wanted to know how best to please me and had a 4-5 month teen phase. This boy was "You want me to do WHAT? Nah" when on walks. Lockdown didn't help as we didn't see many dogs during his early teens, so there was a bit of a reset that needed to be done. Got there finally.

All dogs are different, some teenagers are more difficult than others - but they really do grow up eventually!

Oh, yes, that wonderful moment when you call your puppy and instead of gambolling adoringly back to you they just look at you, then look the other way...

I'm going to put this here, rather than starting a new thread, as you guys might have more specific advice.

My neighbours dog is I guess a teenage dog. He is super sweet but incredibly shy.
My dog (~11) has decided to be a grumpy old man when near him and barks at him. This is very out of character for my dog and he usually only barks to play. The barking is terrifying the teenage dog.
We only occasionally met on walks - so no opportunity to address this frequently. But any thoughts on things I could do to help this awkward teenager feel more comfortable?