Is my teenage dog broken?

[CanineDirtbag]

Honestly, wtf is wrong with him. Eight months old, cockapoo, absolute idiot for the past few weeks and getting worse. I have worked hard training all the way through including paying for a trainer to work with us, persevered, and we were really getting somewhere. The phases of puppy hood that I really hated like the relentless biting were in the past. We were having beautiful, peaceful, sniffy, companionable loose-lead walks together. He was learning to greet other dogs more calmly (enthusiasm has always been an issue).

Now the whole thing has gone so far to shit I really don't even know where to begin in terms of focus. We have:

• lead pulling (awful)
• lead biting
• recall has vanished so he can't go off lead
• overwhelming other dogs. He'll do a polite sniff then a switch flips and he will be jumping at them trying to play with zero manners (another reason he can't be off lead) - so I keep him back from other dogs on walks and he gets frustrated and starts biting the lead
• jumping up and biting hands again (hate it)
• trouble settling (we have given up on the crate as he won't go in it or in any bed, just sleeps on the floor in various spots around the house)
• separation anxiety (runs to the front door if he sees me pick up my car keys and plants himself there to try to block my exit - he isn't left very much or very long and he used to not mind)
• stealing items eg washing off the line and refusing to trade even for high value treats
• Barking like a dickhead all the fucking time

So basically, every single thing we spent six months working to avoid or correct. A month or so ago I would have said we had a really well behaved dog who was learning and improving all the time, who could be reliably left for a couple of hours and was pleasant to be around. Now I feel like I have a chaotic puppy again but this time he's much bigger and stronger and doesn't get the same indulgence from other people as he's not tiny anymore.

Is this really just adolescence and something we have to grit our teeth and train him through all over again, going back to the start, or has something gone seriously awry and he will be like this forever??

Welcome to adolescence! Keep up the training and management, your lovely dog will reappear at some point and it sounds like you are doing a great job, keep an eye on the separation issue and don’t be afraid to get professional support if you need it. Good luck!

Back to basics and remind him of his manners.
And keep up with formal training until he's at least 18 months.

Thanks, I hope he does! Re separation - leave him more frequently for short periods do you think? Building up like in puppyhood again in small increments? Summer holidays have been an issue as there is always at least one teenager (human variety) around so he hasn't been alone much for the past six weeks. I think that might have caused this particular regression.

Yes, I think I was getting complacent on that front.

Sounds like you are doing great! Regression is perfectly normal. The only advice I would give is to teach a place command I like a raised bed for that. They don't come off the bed until you give the release cue. They don't have to settle or be asleep, but it's a space where you can put them if you need them out of the way, like when cooking or whatever. My dog still struggles to settle now at nearly five, but the place command means I can at least get him to sit still for a bit, and often if we wait a longer enough that will lead to some calm.

Totally normal. Albeit an utter pain in the arse where you feel your previously quite lovely young dog has been abducted and replaced by a recalcitrant muppet intent on disobeying every last damn thing that comes out of your mouth. Just because he can.

Boundaries, management and patience so he doesn’t get to practise what I term ‘prat manoeuvres’ are required
Grit your teeth and drink wine when needed. That nice version is still in there - just hidden under hormones.

Teenage hormones Op. As others have said, keep up the training. In a little while you will look back and laugh, I promise.

Ah yes, I remember this! Mine would literally deliberately turn their head in the opposite direction and ignore me!

As others have said, continue with the training & boundaries. Don't reward bad behaviour, but take whatever good behaviour you can get. We also used a settle mat to place and / or distract both in & out of the house. You're also doing to need a sh1t f**k tonne of patience too. Are they food orientated?

Teenagers! Dogs & people 🙄
it will pass as others have said. Just persevere with the training, it’ll all come right eventually.

Quite good orientated, he loves treats and for high value he will do most things for a bit of sausage, chicken or cheese. Settle is a tough one for him to manage any duration with - he knows what to do but bounds back up like a Jack in the box. I am reassured that all this behaviour is recognisable to experienced dog owners. I had read about adolescence but didn't realise it would turn him into this much of a dickhead honestly. He's done a lovely long walk today though with minimal pulling, and is blessedly asleep now!

He is a working breed dog, so this is very normal behaviour. Is he working or show cocker cross btw? Don't overwhelm with lots of activity, you'll just wind him up. Little and often, brain work and physical exercise with lots of cage rest.

Show cocker and I do need to get better with brain work definitely.

So we are facing similar issues with similar age dog. But how do you continue to work on the issues? Like recall? Suddenly he is refusing to come back when He sees something more interesting… dog or litter or dead bird! Then do you just not do off lead walks? Or try long line? I am stuck between rewarding when he does finally come back and wanting to put his lead right on as I’m so stressed by that point but then I feel he will get a negative for coming back and become even worse. But tbh on lead walks are awful and not really exercise. He just stops and sniffs eveything or leaps around biting his lead like an utter Pratt.

in the house he appears to remember his manners but not always and he is not really food orientated. Well he would be for certain things but he has such a sensitive stomach I can’t really use high value foods as they’d give him the runs. So even food stuff is tricky.

Tell me when this stage stops?

Sorry you are also in teenage hell! My idiot has never done much off lead because he's too much of a bother to other dogs so we usually have him on a 2m lead and he generally walks well. We do a lot of standing around and sniffing as he needs it and that tends to reset his brain a bit and after a good sniff he will walk nicely. He gets bitey and jumpy and pulling towards the end of a walk when tired and I usually have to grimly haul him back the last part if I have overestimated what he can manage, but up until then he is pretty good. I absolutely would not trust him off lead for a second right now, he does whatever he feels like in the moment.

I do have a neon 10m line for practising recall in a big field. I drop it so he's free, and if he hares off too far towards a hazard or I see another dog or person, I step on the line so he's anchored. However, I think I'm going right back to basics on recall and am going to get other family members to play puppy ping-pong in and out of the garden as he's developed a habit of plonking himself out there and refusing to come inside. So I think we will make it a game, involve chicken as a reward and try to get the recall command properly embedded.

they are such rewarding dogs but do need a lot of training. Make sure your kids and you are consistent. Our older cocker jumped up for far longer than he should have as some of the kids used to encourage him to jump up at them. This is the time when they will sniff out inconsistency, especially cockers who are super bright! We’ve just got number 2 this week so your thread was a good reminder of what I have coming round the corner!

other option is formal gun dog training if you have it nearby - it’s usually really good and tailored for cockers

Mine is a month younger than yours and has gone from an angel to an embarassment pretty much overnight! He’s back on a long lead as we’ve had two failed recalls now in the vicinity of other dogs. Fortunately, both of the other dogs were also cockapoos and completely unbothered by mine, as were the owners who laughed and asked if he was a teenager by any chance. But not everyone will be that understanding and nor should they be. I get really annoyed with other dog owners who either don’t bother or can’t recall their dog so I want to make sure we get this sorted.