Canine Adolescence

Those weeks of careful monitoring have finally paid off in a housebroken pup - you're now the proud caretaker of a housebroken pup! But wait, is that a yellow stain part of the way up the drape? And after you unclip Rex's leash in the dog run, and he maniacally bounds around for 45 minutes, it still takes a 20 minute game of "Catch Me If You Can" to get him back on-leash to go home. What gives? Your puppy has grown into a teenager.

Your Teenaged Dog

From age 6-18 months, your dog is in adolescence - that gawky stage between puppyhood and adulthood. Physically, the dog has his adult teeth but still needs to chew on hard toys to set them in the jawbone. The cottony puppy coat is falling out in one tremendous shedding cycle and being replaced with the adult coat. He has almost reached his adult height but is all loose elbows and gangly movement.

And what movement! During adolescence, the dog resembles a perpetual motion machine requiring super-human stamina to wear him out. Find him a friendly pack of other canine adolescents to run with in the safety of an urban dog run or suburban fenced-in yard. If he or she lacks canine friends, send the dog out with your resident human teen to fetch a frisbee or go in-line skating.

Tiring out your canine teen will save wear and tear on your abode. Chewing results when a dog is bored, anxious, or curious - and the dog is allowed run of the house. For the canine adolescent, boredom and curiosity often lead to major household damage via chewing, digging, and general re-organization. This damage could largely be avoided if caretakers would simply continue to confine their dog in a training crate or dog proof room when no one is around to monitor canine investigations throughout adolescence. Canine teens are incapable of the consistency it takes to earn the run of the place unsupervised.

Those Raging Hormones

Hormones also plays a major role in your canine's adolescence. Most dogs become sexually mature at 8-12 months of age with females experiencing their first estrus (heat) cycle and males beginning to lift their legs and show interest in "the ladies". By spaying or neutering early you can save yourself and your dog the experience of increased urination indoors (advertising for suitors by females in heat or marking territory by intact males), inter-dog aggression (primarily between dogs of the same sex fighting off the competition), and the complete loss of attention that attends raging hormones. Not to mention accidental matings, false pregnancies, and the male teen's need to taste-test female urine.

Temporary Memory Loss

An adolescent, even a neutered one, will experience occasional lapses in attention. At times he may look at you as though you just addressed him in Mandarin, trying to convince you that you have never uttered "s-i-t" before in his lifetime. Handle these lapses the same way you would with an untrained dog. Take a step or two backward in your training program and re-teach him the command by luring or placing into the requested position. Make it worth his while by the use of positive reinforcement. Keep his focus on you by using favourite toys and treats as lures. And keep your training sessions short and functional, always ending with a game or playtime. If you take away the fun, he or she will show even less interest.

In order to get through your dog's adolescence, remember: provide plenty of exercise; continue to crate/confine when unattended; spay or neuter; keep training fun; and by all means, hang on to your sense of humour at all times. They will try your patience but take heart, adolescence is one thing your dog is guaranteed to outgrow.