Teen dog thread

[Unluckycat1]

Is there any appetite for a thread for owners of adolescent dogs? I think at 11 months Unluckypup has outgrown the puppy thread, but I'd love to keep chatting with others as she's my first dog and I don't know what I'm doing sometimes, or if things will get better.

Inspired by today's battle to get her back on the lead 😫

Her recall vanished at around nine months. But there's a decent fenced field nearby so all good. She's probably part saluki so needs a hard run most days. Although she wasn't (outside of the house) responding to her name or 'come' anymore, I would make myself interesting by being quite active, having treats, and she would check in with me often, and most of the time get a treat for her trouble, and eventually I'd pop her back on the lead to go.

Except today she would not come close. She seemed to want me to chase her and was dancing about just out of reach. She was also chasing every single car that went past as if possessed, which is new. I managed to eventually trick her by putting a YouTube video of squeaky ball sounds on my phone, hiding my phone in a bush, and grabbing her when she was investigating, but I doubt that'll work twice. She did the same to my partner the other day and it took him an hour and a half to get her back. So I guess no off-lead time now, until...who knows??

Anyone been through this and reached the well-behaved other side? Anyone want to pour a glass of wine with me because they're going through similar? Feel free to share any hardships or successes or tips 🙏(and photos!)

Hello. So gizlotspup only goes off lead in our garden or with our doggy day care. His recall was always rubbish but now he will deliberately look away from me if I am giving a command. He won’t do down any more! Still pulls like a train to try to get to other dogs but walks nicely most of the time now! He is so vocal at home tho! Refuses to learn quiet! And eats everything!

Mine is 2 years and 4 months, does that still count as a teenager? I’ve read that teenagerhood in pups can go anywhere up to 3 or even sometimes 4 years, and it feels like ours still has a lot of maturing to do.

She’s so much better than she was, especially 1-1 and when she’s settled in her routine, but I do worry about introducing her to our baby (although I’m only 8 weeks currently!). We have MIL’s dog here to stay for a few days and they mostly get on fine, but ours has had a couple of growls and high-pitched barks towards MIL’s dog when she thinks she’s too close to me.

She loves people and this is a pretty recent thing for her. She’s due a vet check-up so I’m going to ask them to run the full MOT and make sure she’s not in any pain or discomfort that might be causing her to react like that.

Thank you for the great thread x

Afternoon all!! Fluffpup is now 18 months and a golden retriever. Generally she's a cracker dog. But to my shame, we've never cracked recall and to a certain extent we've given up. So she's just off lead on certain spaces and doggy day care. Otherwise she's the perfect dog (mostly) so I'm trying to get over it. Still a very enthusiastic greeter of everyone/dog/thing but I can see her calming down.

For those with recall issues.. have you tried a long line? You can just let it drag along the floor and then if/when you want them back just pick it up. We have a 6ft one which does the job if I think we are in a place where recall might be dodgy.

I've no teenage dog here anymore but I wanted to just...

a) perhaps give a little hope: mine could be a bugger for recall in his teens, despite being a good puppy. He's now much older and his recall is almost non existent....because he never leaves my side and so never needs recalling If he needs recalling, he comes straight away good as gold. It comes back to them, just don't let them 'practice' ignoring you too often!

b) recall a particularly bad day when he got into a largeish patch of long grain, excited by the smell of hares. He would not come back to me and I - seeing red - stomped about after him without a hope of catching him while he taunted and dodged me. In the end I caught hold of myself and my ridiculousness. I stopped, left the patch and sat down on the grass. So long as I could see him and know he was fine and that he wasn't actually bothering any hares (there was just the scent), I resolved to wait. Within seconds he was by my side, wondering what on earth I was doing sitting down on the grass and not playing catch with him.

Can I join with my 2 year 2 month old terror please? He's a lovely but absolutely mental cockapoo who enjoys barking a lot and generally annoying the dogs in the street with his woofs. Lots of training - so much training....

@SirChenjins ours is a cockerpoo too 😣 the training is endless but we’ve had so many comments from family and friends that she’s so much calmer than she used to be, and from strangers about her (sometimes) beautiful behaviour too.

I actually started writing them all down and stuck them on the fridge to remind me she can be lovely! Hang on in there 😊

Hi can I and our girl (will pay tax soon) join too ? I was briefly on the puppy thread under a different name .
So teen is 9months and currently in season and going under the knife in Jan .She's doing not to bad , We're constantly on alert for her trying new behaviours out such as counter surfing (not tried yet!) .She did try out her teeth on the corner of a rug in the kitchen !
She did try out attention barking but we all just left the room and left her alone so she stopped that .
She is really annoyingly an over enthusiastic greeter so she goes on a lead when anyone comes to visit and then she is calm after that but just wish she would get over it .
I'm really worried as she is in season and on lead walks only she will have a personality transplant that we will go back to the park and recall will fail , hmm we will see .
So 👋🏻 everyone !

@DevonMum2Be how old is yours? Just so I know how much longer I’ve got…

They say cockapoos are clever because they are a combination of 2 v intelligent breeds but mine must have missed that memo.

@SirChenjins 2 years 4 months - she’s still very much a work in progress, and sometimes the progress looks like two steps forward and one step back, but that’s still a net gain 😄

Paying what I'm due .

@DevonMum2Be Mine is 2 years and 2 months, so he’s got 2 months to up his game! It does feel like one step forward and 2 back some days.

I am also on the puppy thread, but Feelypup is 11 months now, and just totally batty.
this is boiseterous to a new level 🤦‍♀️

In fact, the ONLY thing she’s good at is recall. Lead walking is just another level of chaos 😭😭

Can’t pay the tax as the chaotic furball won’t sit still long enough 😤 so basically my photographic memories of her will be as such…

Tiny innocent puppy
Very fast brown streak
Elderly dog

Took psycho pup out for a long walk today with swimming in the river… she was utterly superb. Literally didn’t put a paw wrong. Our behaviourist said that the new thought process on exercise is not so much the 5 minutes per month of life IF the walk is free movement. Lead walks restricted but not country walks… this could be a sanity saver!)

then we got home and she’s napped most of the day.

I feel like she’s planning something quite frankly….

This is just an excellent doggo 😍😍

We have a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old. They're both pretty good tbh, but do have their moments. The older more than the younger. Now it's winter and I'm wearing a woolly hat again her favourite thing to do if she's in a mischievous mood is to remove the hat from my head (she can jump high enough to do this whilst I'm standing) and see if she can encourage anyone to chase her for it!

Im sorry , i have no reason to be on this thread ..I would love a dog but cant have one ..but i love reading about naughty dogs!

Two years nine months and has suddenly decided housetraining is something other dogs do. I rigged up an old ipad as a spycam to just confirm it was her and not my old lady, and caught footage of her going out through the dog door, wandering back in, and casually peeing on the kitchen floor. I love her to bits, but really...

I have a 2.5 year old lab. At around 7m we lost recall , he stopped doing any commands. Went off food as a reward. It was hard work. We use a gentle leader for walks as pulling was and is a big issue. I let him off lead in quiet open spaces and he now recalls 95% of the time. He's a lot better that he was although he will occasionally destroy a tea towel or sock if he can. He's crate trained but we tend to just crate at night. We did hire a behaviourist about a year ago which helped. He still mouths tho. We are almost out the woods (I hope!)

Loving all these photos! Gizlotpup is so striking, a gorgeous coat and markings. How old now @Gizlotsmum ? I think at around 8 months unluckypup started ignoring some basic commands, but luckily that phase has passed (until it no doubt returns...). She's also recently found her voice and is always telling us that a ball has rolled out of reach or that it's time to play or time for a wee now (not with barks but weird yowls).

@BigBundleOfFluff fluffpup is just the prettiest girl <3

@Housenightmare when you put it like that the longline dragging behind them sounds so obvious a solution. I just have this gut feeling something would go wrong (I'm a bit of a catastrophist tbf). E.g. unluckypup is so fast and I imagine it getting tangled up and caught on something (a leg is my biggest fear). If I'm being ridiculous please tell me because I think it sounds a really good idea as long as it's not risky. (love the picture, clearly in her happy place!)

@ChipButtiesRule that does give me hope! Thank you.

@helpshesateen I love how silly they look when rolling on their backs and their ears floop up 😍

@tizwozliz gosh they're just gleaming! I've seen a lab jumping high, it did surprise me. I read somewhere that dogs often don't know how high they can actually jump, but once they learn they don't forget!

For those with the 2+ aged dogs, imo they still counts as teens, I've been told most dogs don't mature until 3 (😩🍷), and some breeds (eg labs) stay puppish for longer.

My Romanian rescue is 2 years 9 months and at last she seems to be getting pretty reliable with recall 🙏🤞🏻
I tried everything I could think of and eventually resigned myself to several months of only letting her off when in an enclosed dog field.
What finally seemed to work was taking her there with a friend whose dog was food oriented (mine wasn’t!), using high-value treats (roast chicken, raw steak bits, cooked cocktail sausages) that were solely use for training only.
I find that www.jrpetproducts.com/collections/pure-dog-training-treats are brilliant.
I tried the long line trailing method but she was far too quick for me and after ending up with a nasty injury from getting it wrapped around my ankle as she took off I stopped!
About 5 months ago I gritted my teeth and let her off in a popular dog walking field with others around and actually discovered that ignoring her and keeping walking made her think twice about following others.
Another thing was using her ball as a treat when she came back, if I call ‘Balls’ she hurtles back to me now, so that’s become a good reward for her. She only has a ball in that situation, not any when else.
I always I check that other dog walkers are happy if I let her off unless there’s no one around obviously.
On the beach she gets more distracted but so far it’s still working!
I suspect I will get caught out sooner or later. I hope you find something that works for you soon.

@Unluckycat1 he’s 10 months, it’s definitely increased over the last month or so. He was a total twonk on our walk this morning ( should have been 50 mins took us 90!!) no real rhyme or reason to it! So glad he goes to doggy day care at least once a week! Thank you for the comments his coat is changing but he still hates us brushing him, ok at groomers. He hates being towel dried so I am considering an air blaster to get the worse off and stop the wet dog smell!!

For recall training, I used a 30 meter long line so give a good 60 meter diameter for running. My dog gets distracted by other dogs, the secret is drop the whole line on the floor, if your dog is running away attempt recall, if they don't respond within two seconds stand on the line so they can't go further. Don't grab it with your hands because you'll get serious burns!
Obviously need a large open space like a field or football pitch to do this.

For general recall training, call your dog back, when it comes back give lots of praise and treats then tell it to go again. Repeat repeat repeat. They need to not associate coming back with being put on a lead. If most of the time you're recalling it's to put on a lead or go home, they don't associate recall with something positive and they won't do it!

@Gizlotsmum my lab boy absolutely loves being towel dried. Throws himself under the towel, wags and wriggles about, comes back for more. Lies on his back and waves his legs in the air to have his paws done. I think he thinks it's the best fuss ever (he's very cuddly) A Very Weird Dog... I've never known a dog before that likes being pummelled with a towel! 🤣