Understanding Your Teenage Dog

According to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, nearly HALF of dogs surrendered to shelters are between the ages of 5 months and 3 years. Almost all of those dogs had been in the house for less than a year. What that boils down to is that the vast majority of dogs that are surrendered to shelters are surrendered during adolescence. Most of those dogs were also puppies when they initially came home and were surrendered before they reached physical and mental maturity.

Why??

Half of these animals were not spayed or neutered, and may have been exhibiting normal behaviors that go along with sexual maturity, but that humans find annoying (humping, wandering, going into heat, etc.)
Virtually none of them had obedience training of any kind
The humans felt overwhelmed and unprepared
The humans were unable to find help due to lack of resources

The first two years of your dog’s life are equivalent to about 10 to 12 human years. They have A LOT of maturing to do in a very short time! After that, they age about 4 dog years for every 1 human year.

You may know there are 4 main stages of puppyhood. Most people think that once they make it through teething, they’re in the clear! After all, your dog now has all their adult teeth, and is very nearly adult sized! Unfortunately, you may have a long way to go. Adolescence begins around 6 months of age, depending on the breed of dog, and usually lasts until 18 months to 3 years. Smaller breeds may start and end adolescence sooner. There are two primary stages of development for adolescent dogs.

Understanding the phases your teenage dog will go through can help you plan, prepare, and train for the challenges that may lie ahead.

Stages of Development

Flight Instinct Stage: to 8 months

When puppies are young, they tend to stick very close to their humans and other dog siblings. This is primarily for survival. They are too small to survive on their own, so they stick close to safety. As they grow larger, and have lots of positive experiences with the world, they naturally become more adventurous and confident with leaving their comfort zone!

This is also about the age that dogs are beginning to experience and exhibit natural reproductive urges, which can contribute to our dogs, particularly males, wandering further from home. If your dog is not spayed or neutered, at this stage they’ll be ready and able to reproduce! Oh my! Of course, that definitely does not mean that they SHOULD. Let’s leave the puppies to the professionals. You will also notice your male dogs beginning to mark their territory with urine.

At this stage, the most common problem behavior is going to be wandering off, running away, or not coming when called. It’s vital to prevent these problems by:

Keeping your dog on leash when out and about
Keeping your dog in a safely fenced in yard
Playing games to strengthen your dog’s recall (come when called)
Supervising your dogs when outdoors to prevent unwanted litters.

Fear Periods

You are likely familiar with puppy fear periods. They are pretty predictable and usually happen around the same age for every puppy. What many people don’t know is that teenage dogs also go through one or more fear periods during adolescence!

The tricky part is that these fear periods are more or less totally unpredictable and very undefined. They can happen anywhere from 6 to 18 months, and often last several weeks. For some dogs, they may go through just one fear period, while others may go through several.

Most dogs make it through these fear periods without any mishaps, but it’s still important to be prepared and know both what to look for, and how to handle fear periods!

What to look for:

Suddenly afraid of previously comfortable triggers
Fear of new people or dogs
Fear of new experiences, places, or things
Puppy is suddenly very jumpy, and reluctant to interact with you or the environment
Puppy is slower to recover from being startled or frightened
Puppy is slower to explore new things
Puppy is “not cooperating”, “being stubborn”, more hyper than usual, getting lots of zoomies, or suddenly destructive

The big key here is that this is often a sudden onset. One day you have a happy, bouncy, and confident puppy. The next day, they’re scared, shy, and you’re wondering what happened to traumatize them so much! Don’t worry – it’s very normal! Although it’s always a good idea to phone into your vet to make sure your puppy isn’t sick or hurt.

Fortunately, most puppies make it through this stage perfectly okay, with no lasting effects. There are two key things to helping your puppy get through the fear period unscathed.

Be on the lookout! Being prepared and aware will ensure that you’re ready to support your puppy through their fear period without picking up any phobias because you’ll be prepared for the next step!
Don’t push your dog to confront their fears. Our puppies don’t rationalize the same way we do. Forcing or luring them right up to something that is scary to ‘show them it won’t hurt them’ will likely backfire on you. This often scares the puppy and shows them they can’t trust you! Let them explore on their own and at their own pace.

Other ways to navigate Fear Periods

Form lots of positive associations. New things mean cheese and hot dogs!
Give your puppy plenty of space. If they are acting wary of something, move them or the object away from each other until your puppy relaxes
Lots of rest & enrichment will keep your puppy happy and thriving
Keep track of things your puppy is concerned about so you can carefully reintroduce those triggers
Keep training sessions short and fun
Refill your puppy’s cup with fun activities and enrichment
Stick to your puppy’s comfort zone, and limit exposure to new people, places, and things for a few weeks

Above all, remember to give yourself and your teenage puppy grace! Remember those stats at the beginning of this post? Your dog’s teenage months (years?) are some of the hardest ones you’ll face! You are doing a great job. Your puppy is going through a challenging phase, but together you guys can make it through!