Adolescence/Teenage Behaviour

[SAujla]

Clover is 7 months now so we are out of the first puppy stage and into the start of adolescence. I wanted to ask how did people on here deal with adolescence or teenage behaviour. Is it that they show teenage behaviour for the whole day, parts of the day or randomly when the mood takes them?

I've not seen any real signs of adolescence just yet, she's quite calm most of the day. She doesn't look like she's close to going into season either, her mother and auntie had their first seasons when they were both 8 months.

She sleeps 11pm-7am with regular naps throughout the day, she's good on the leash but still needs improving and her recall is decent unless there are birds within sight and it becomes non-existant.

She is also my best friend, its not relevant to the post but worth adding.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Any time between now and 24 months lol.

 

[PapaverFollis]

So sweet! Just be ready to go back to basics on the training, especially recall, for a while. There may also be a fear period where she gets randomly spooked by stuff. Let her take her time and look at things if that happens. Not sure how common that is but my spaniel had a "spooky" phase! It was only a couple of weeks of giving wheelie bins a wide berth... oh and she might start chewing again as her teeth "settle" into her jaw. Make sure she always has appropriate toys to chew.

 

[Karran]

Season will come when ready. Mrs Spaniel had her first at 11 months. Miss Collie is 20 months and still waiting!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Clover is gorgeous!
I would say that she is a bit young at 7 months to be a teenage Lab, wait until she is a couple of months older - then you will certainly see teenage behaviour! And don't hold your breath for her calming down!
Usually you will just notice 'incidents' when she either ignores you, does something that she knows is against the rules, or has a strop, some Labs are good at sulking.

 

[Bellasophia]

my st poodle girls came in season at 9 m and 11 m..Both followed their mothers season ,age wise.if you are in touch with your breeder maybe she can tell you a bit about her line‘s patterns.
At seven months I would continue with her basic training exercises,as using her brain will also tire her as much as a good walk.

 

[Tinkerbee]

She's so beautiful and always looks so soft!

 

[SAujla]

So sweet! Just be ready to go back to basics on the training, especially recall, for a while. There may also be a fear period where she gets randomly spooked by stuff. Let her take her time and look at things if that happens. Not sure how common that is but my spaniel had a "spooky" phase! It was only a couple of weeks of giving wheelie bins a wide berth... oh and she might start chewing again as her teeth "settle" into her jaw. Make sure she always has appropriate toys to chew.

She does often like to look at dogs but won't move, won't go towards them either but her tail is in the alert position. At the moment she's not bothered by loud sounds like lorries going past or the washing machine. I think the second fear period will be towards the end of adolescence. The finding appropriate chews is difficult as her teeth are to powerful for puppy ones yet I don't feel they are developed enough for adult ones, she likes her soft toys so I use those with supervision. How did you handle recall during this time?

 

[SAujla]

Clover is gorgeous!
I would say that she is a bit young at 7 months to be a teenage Lab, wait until she is a couple of months older - then you will certainly see teenage behaviour! And don't hold your breath for her calming down!
Usually you will just notice 'incidents' when she either ignores you, does something that she knows is against the rules, or has a strop, some Labs are good at sulking.

Yes I agree she's not quite there yet I'm trying to prepare myself for it coming, she's always been calm from day one which I'm determined won't give me a false sense of security. The calming down I've always thought is a bit of a myth andhopeful thinking, if I do nothing she'll learn bad habits and they won't go away?

The only time I've seen her sulk so far was when I kept her outside at night trying to get that final wee done and she wanted to go back in, when I opened the door she stormed off into her crate and lay down with her back to me and didn't even turn around for her bedtime biscuit! She inevitably woke up and hour before normal asking to go outside for a wee!

 

[SAujla]

my st poodle girls came in season at 9 m and 11 m..Both followed their mothers season ,age wise.if you are in touch with your breeder maybe she can tell you a bit about her line‘s patterns.
At seven months I would continue with her basic training exercises,as using her brain will also tire her as much as a good walk.

I speak with her breeder regularly, just spamming her with photos mainly but she did say both mother and auntie who she has had their seasons at 8 months, we've been around some dogs who are intact and they haven't given Clover much attention. She won't be spayed until she's had at least one season and is older than 15 months

 

[SAujla]

She's so beautiful and always looks so soft!

I'm obviously biased but yes I agree she is beautiful, I think Clover knows as well. Her winter coat is in now she shed her summer one recently - everywhere!

 

[PapaverFollis]

I put them on lead or long line so they didn't get chance to get it wrong and did loads of easy recalls with high value rewards.

I had built up a big "bank" of success on recall from them being very small puppies too. During adolescence particularly I had a rule that I didn't use my recall cue unless it was 100% going to be a successful recall. So I never tested it. It meant that the odd occasions where I actually needed to test it because I'd made an error or something unexpected happened there was such a weight of reward history in the cue that it worked. It would be easy during adolescence to "wear out" a recall cue if you tried to use it to get them away from every newly interesting sniff etc. Any risk of a bog off and they were on a lead of some kind.

Kongs are good for chews. Stuffed and frozen. Or just filled with a few biscuits if you are lazy like me.

 

[SAujla]

I put them on lead or long line so they didn't get chance to get it wrong and did loads of easy recalls with high value rewards.

I had built up a big "bank" of success on recall from them being very small puppies too. During adolescence particularly I had a rule that I didn't use my recall cue unless it was 100% going to be a successful recall. So I never tested it. It meant that the odd occasions where I actually needed to test it because I'd made an error or something unexpected happened there was such a weight of reward history in the cue that it worked. It would be easy during adolescence to "wear out" a recall cue if you tried to use it to get them away from every newly interesting sniff etc. Any risk of a bog off and they were on a lead of some kind.

Kongs are good for chews. Stuffed and frozen. Or just filled with a few biscuits if you are lazy like me.

I do use a 10 metre long line most of the time in the park she is attached to it, it gives me a lot more confidence. I'm wary of setting her up for failure and its interesting how you mentioned recall while sniffing, I've stopped calling her when I can tell she is focused on something I wait for her head to go up then I call her and it works every time, but I was close to wearing it out as I would try calling her when she was sniffing intensely. I do wish I could let her off the lead a lot more but I'm just not there yet and I'd rather know she's safe and everyone else in the park is as well.

Kings are brilliant the ball one with a hole going through the middle is one I use a lot, not much can go in but it takes her time to get it all out.

 

[Ranyhyn]

As for how to handle adolescence, its like a second puppy hood. Expect to be firm and unyielding. Keep your defences strong against the beautiful one.

 

[SAujla]

As for how to handle adolescence, its like a second puppy hood. Expect to be firm and unyielding. Keep your defences strong against the beautiful one.

Keeping defences strong is tiring, sometimes when she wants a treat, usually a carrot she just stares at you so I try not to make direct eye contact otherwise I'll cave. I'm a lot firmer than I used to be though as she's a lot stronger now