Teen phase?

[beth101509]

She is right at 7 months. Major noticible changes. Her sleep pattern has changed. her eating habits have changed her attitude has changed and her memory goes out the door randomly. Or should I say she has very selective hearing. Oh and did I mention barking.

Who knows they may all start at a little different times.

We still having loads of fun and playing and training. Only issue that I have to be careful of is she goes to a lot of my appointments. So if she continues to use her voice the way she did yesterday she will have to stay home as that really is a no no.

What do you mean by sleep and eating changes? I have been having Oliver sleep in our room and he generally sleeps all night long but the last couple of nights, he has been restless and it is keeping me up. We have gotten more exercise those days too so he shouldn't be restless at night at all. Maybe this is his transition to teen phase? He still eats like a pig but has been slowing down at dinner times. He will eat his food in 5 seconds instead of 2 like before. Is that what you mean? Also, this morning, my husband's alarm went off and Oliver sprinted over to the wall. He has NEVER gotten off his bed until my husband comes out of the bathroom after showering and I told Oliver 10 times to come lay back down and he never even acknowledged me, my husband asked him twice and finally just moved him back to his bed but....what the heck? Is that what you mean as well?

[Snowshoe]

My trainer keeps saying that Molly is in a teen phase. Its like she here memory crash landed and is all mixed up. Some days she is very on matk on some thing and not others. Other days its like she has lost her hearing.

Im getting very frustrated. I try be very consistant.

There is a learning theory that says it takes about five weeks for a thing to be learned and till it is truly learned it resides in short term memory. Then it moves to long term memory but whilst in transit from short to long it is temporarily unavailable and seems like it was never heard of let alone learned and forgotten. I studied this in classes for teaching adult students. Imagine my surprise when one of Oban's dog trainers said the very same thing seems to happen with dogs.

It's a theory, but my gosh, doesn't it fit? The solution is to keep cool, back up a bit in training to something easier and be patient. My own personal favourite trick when things aren't going right is to have a vacation from training. A day of just fun, maybe even a whole week. There is actually research now that suggests vacations are just as important to dogs and other animals in their learning as they are to us. Of course when dogs "forget" we need that vacation as much as they do.

[MightyThor]

Thor is 14 months and I think he's *finally* moving out of the teenager phase of selective hearing. The worst was his heel. He went from a perfect heel at 6 months to "what does that word mean?" for months. Yesterday on our walk he did it the whole time with this "what, I'm perfect, remember?" look on his face the whole time.

[Jollymolly]

What do you mean by sleep and eating changes? I have been having Oliver sleep in our room and he generally sleeps all night long but the last couple of nights, he has been restless and it is keeping me up. We have gotten more exercise those days too so he shouldn't be restless at night at all. Maybe this is his transition to teen phase? He still eats like a pig but has been slowing down at dinner times. He will eat his food in 5 seconds instead of 2 like before. Is that what you mean? Also, this morning, my husband's alarm went off and Oliver sprinted over to the wall. He has NEVER gotten off his bed until my husband comes out of the bathroom after showering and I told Oliver 10 times to come lay back down and he never even acknowledged me, my husband asked him twice and finally just moved him back to his bed but....what the heck? Is that what you mean as well?

Beth this sounds like it may be the start of it. I did notice slight changes at 6 months but some of them are rather drastic. As in Molly no longer wants to eat breakfast.

Good luck to us all

[Meeps83]

Maverick's teenager phase hit at around 9 months. He listens when there are no other dogs around but he's just been naughty in general. He is also down to about 3 cups of food/day.

[Jollymolly]

What do you mean by sleep and eating changes? I have been having Oliver sleep in our room and he generally sleeps all night long but the last couple of nights, he has been restless and it is keeping me up. We have gotten more exercise those days too so he shouldn't be restless at night at all. Maybe this is his transition to teen phase? He still eats like a pig but has been slowing down at dinner times. He will eat his food in 5 seconds instead of 2 like before. Is that what you mean? Also, this morning, my husband's alarm went off and Oliver sprinted over to the wall. He has NEVER gotten off his bed until my husband comes out of the bathroom after showering and I told Oliver 10 times to come lay back down and he never even acknowledged me, my husband asked him twice and finally just moved him back to his bed but....what the heck? Is that what you mean as well?

Could be the start. It seemed to come on with mild hints at first But all I can sat is I think you will know when it starts.

Good luck to all the puppy teen parants

[TooLabs]

Murphey is a bit over 16 months... He is definitely in teen terror times... actually we have went back to having him wear his ecollar daily-- it helps only need tone periodically, however, he has his very trying moments such as today when out of the blue he hoisted his leg and dripped a couple urine drops on my dining room table/rug... that behavior has not been seen or had to be addressed in months!!! Gasp-- always something to address as needed.. and my now almost 11 year old female resorts back to spurts of teenager behavior and antics--- labs never grow up.. lol

[happy_blackbird]

Oh, JollyMolly, I am right there with you. Our 6 month old, Ellie, has suddenly decided that she no longer wants to listen to any commands I give her. None. Period. And on top of that, she has started barking at every single sound she perceived she hears through the newly opened windows (with apologies to everyone up north and in the east, it's suddenly very warm here in California). My understanding is that this is adolescence hard and heavy and that we just have to be patient, consistent, and kind to our pups and ourselves. I actually stamped my feet on our hike this morning, I was so frustrated that I couldn't get Ellie to drop coyote poop out of her mouth (when I gave her the "drop it!" command as I was walking towards her, a command she knows very well, she just chewed faster). We'll get through it!