Dog Adolescents

Is your 1 year-old dog driving you crazy? Do you walk twice a day, but she’s still getting into everything? Did your dog behave beautifully in class, but now she sometimes acts like she doesn’t even know her own name let alone what “Sit” means?

Congratulations! Your puppy is growing up. Your dog is now an adolescent. Just like human beings, dogs go through different stages of development, both physically and mentally. A dog’s developmental stages are: Neonatal – 0 to 14 days, Transitional – 14 to 21 days, Socialization – 3 to 16 weeks, Juvenile – 4 to 6 months, Adolescence – 6 to 18 months, and Adult.

As a general rule, adolescence can appear in smaller dogs as early as five months. In larger breeds, it can start as late as nine or ten months. In general, the larger the dog, the longer they take to mature. (Timeframe varies with dog breed and size.) Some breeds can remain adolescents until they are 2 1/2 or 3 years old.

Adolescence is a very difficult time for guardians. They are surprised when their cute little puppy becomes an independent thinker. Minor puppy rambunctiousness becomes major-league unruly behavior, such as ignoring you (Come? What’s that?), chewing inappropriate objects, and extreme bouncing-off-the-walls hyperactivity.

The good news is there are many ways to help your dog through this period. While walks are an essential part of any dog’s day, all too often we consider a walk enough exercise. When our puppy’s energy level increases, we try to wear them out with longer walks. Increasing walks will get you a physically fit dog, but it’s not enough. We must stimulate our dogs mentally as well. 

There are many activities that will “wear your dog out”, both physically and mentally. Place your dog’s meals in Kongs and let her work for supper. (In a bowl, it’s gone in 3 minutes.) Your dog will spend time figuring out how to get at her supper, and extracting the food provides much needed chewing exercise. (For the 3 stages of Kong stuffing visit www.fundawgs.com) If your dog spends several hours alone on a regular basis, consider purchasing a Kong Time, which releases Kongs at variable intervals. Sterilized bones can also be stuffed with favorite treats.

In addition, there are many interactive toys for dogs, such as Egg Babies and the Hide-a-Squirrel. Egg Babies have squeaky eggs in a velcroed enclosure, which they must work to extract. The Squirrel Hut is similar in that stuffed squirrels are pulled from their tree.

Be sure to provide plenty of chew toys, such as bully sticks and Nylabones. Chewing naturally calms a dog. As always supervise your dog with anything new to make sure your dog is using it appropriately.

Training is another way of channeling your dog’s energy. The mental exercise your pup gets from training is just as important as the physical exercise. Learning is hard work! A 10 minute session of obedience training is as good as a two mile walk. Don’t forget about teaching tricks. They’re as much fun to teach as they are to learn.

While obedience classes are always a good idea, there are many more activities available that provide physical and mental exercise. These activities can be done for fun or competition.

Agility is s a sport that uses an obstacle course. With direction from their humans, dogs jump hurdles, scale ramps, burst through tunnels, traverse a see-saw and weave through a line of poles.

Rally Obedience is a combination of obedience exercises performed on a course. Rally-O emphasizes fun and excitement, while building your skills as a handler and increasing your dog's repertoire of behaviors.

Canine Freestyle is a choreographed performance. Musical freestyle artistically displays the dog and handler in an original dance, using intricate movements to showcase teamwork. Heelwork-to-Music incorporates traditional obedience and the art of dressage with the inclusion of musical interpretation and dance elements.

Try out some of these suggestions and I’m sure you’ll have a calmer and happier adolescent.  

Toni Lee Hage is a graduate of the SF SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers and the owner/trainer of Fun Dawgs in San Leandro www.fundawgs.com . She offers a variety of group classes, plus private sessions in good manners and bad manners behavior modification.