So what exactly is happening?

At around 5-6 months of age dogs enter adolescence. It’s the same stage that we experience as humans. Adolescence in dogs is finished by around 2-3 years of age (longer than you were expecting?). Puppies don’t just turn into adult dogs but many people expect their puppy to behave like an adult dog at a year old which is unrealistic.

During adolescence the brain undergoes structural and hormonal changes. Hormones from the brain send signals to other parts of the body to release further hormones, plus helps the body become sexually mature. The structural changes in the brain affects the way the different brain regions communicate with each other and the rest of the body as well as the way a dog experiences emotions.

Five things you need to know about life with a teenage dog:

 1.There is a poor connection between two parts of the brain: the frontal cortex (responsible for decision making) and the amygdala (the part which processes emotions). This means that dogs have less behavioural control. The frontal cortex is the slowest part of your dog’s brain to mature.

How will this affect your dog’s behaviour?

Your dog will be more impulsive which can lead them into situations with no perception of danger, so they are more likely to get into conflict, often with other dogs. Your dog may appear erratic and not in control of themselves.

How should you deal with this type of behaviour?

‍Environmental management is key! It’s not their fault and an adolescent dog is unlikely to make good, safe decisions at this age so you will need to ensure that poor choices are not available using gentle guidance. This could involve keeping your dog on a lead or long line in distracting places, even if they were able to be off-lead before; they’ve entered a different stage now so their needs are different. Use of the secure fields at Martham Paw Ground is a brilliant way to give them the freedom they crave without being able to get themselves into trouble. Providing distractions at home can go a long way towards preventing the rehearsal of undesirable behaviour around guests and at other triggering times where your dog gets over excited. Baby gates are also invaluable for preventing them from accessing the things they cannot resist right now, such as the work surfaces in your kitchen or the children’s toys. Your dog will need lots of help to make the right decisions and these decisions must be worth while for your dog. This is not the time to reduce training rewards, it's the time to ramp them up!

 2.There is an increase of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure.

How will this affect your dog’s behaviour?

Your adolescent dog will have an increaseddesire to seek pleasure. Anything your dog finds enjoyable won’t just beenjoyable…it will be the BEST THING EVER and rather addictive. This means that if your dog has found something enjoyable that you don’t want them to do….they are extremely likely to repeat it again. If you have a working breed dog, you will likely see an increase in breed specific behaviour (for example; working spaniels will likely have an increased urge to hunt, collies will likely have an increased urge to control movement). It’s not all bad; it also means they are particularly sensitive to positive rewards and experiences that come through you.

How should you deal with this type of behaviour?

Again, management is key to ensure they do not find increased enjoyment in all the things you don’t want them to repeat in the long term. If they are doing it now, they will do it again in future. BUT! It’s also really important to provide your dog with appropriate outlets; otherwise your dog will become frustrated and more persistent in seeking pleasure. Appropriate outlets include digging, sniffing, searching, destroying, chewing, chasing and grabbing. What does your adolescent dog find motivating at the moment? Try to provide this for them in a safe and appropriate way. If your dog loves to dig you can provide a digging pit (even a big pile of old towels can help provide a dog with a place to dig and you can bury things for them to find), if your dog loves to destroy things you can provide items they can safely destroy, if they love chewing you can provide natural, long lasting chews, and so on. Take advantage of your adolescent dog’s increased dopamine by doing plenty of fun stuff with them, get silly! If you are a source of fun then your dog will consider you to be worthwhile and more likely to follow your guidance in other situations. But this doesn’t just happen….you need to ensure you provide plenty of the fun stuff and actively engage with them for lots of short sessions each day.

3.The amygdala is bigger and more active during adolescence. This part of the brain is responsible for processing emotions. Adolescent dogs have bigger feelings.

How will this affect your dog’s behaviour?

Well, your dog may have times where they seem to be an emotional mess! Anything exciting can make them lose their minds.Things may suddenly scare them that they were fine with before. The fear response is more easily triggered (Fight, Flight, Fool around and Freeze) and memories as a result of negative situations are more likely to stick. This basically means that if your dog has negative or scary experiences during adolescence; they are much more likely to be traumatized by this in the longer term. Adolescent dogs also get frustrated extremely easily and do not cope well with it. If there’s something they really want to do and they can’t; they will feel frustrated and even furious about it. This could mean that if you remove your adolescent dog from something they were enjoying but you didn’t want them to do; they could have an outburst of barking or jumping up and grabbing you. They may be more likely to attempt escape from situations where they are behind a barrier, so the scratching of doors and biting of door frames is common.

How should you deal with this type of behaviour?

Try to reduce big feelings by avoiding situations that cause big feelings. If you know that your dog always loses it when they greet a dog and then you move them along; it’s likely best to avoid greeting the dog and give your dog more space instead, have a tug game with them when they’ve calmly watched another dog from further away, reward them with treats. If you need to use environmental management such as baby gates then you can make this less frustrating for them by ensuring good things happen there; not just feelings of frustration. Practise this when you haven’t stopped them from doing something so it becomes normal and not a negative association. If you have a young puppy you can gradually teach them to tolerate frustration while they are young, so they are better equipped when they reach adolescence. If there’s something that spooks your adolescent dog; give them space, time to process and opportunity to calm down. Licking and chewing are useful for calming dogs and you can provide more opportunities to do this during adolescence. Beware of trigger stacking (the buildup of stress over time) as this will cause bigger fear responses. Remember; fear memories are more likely to form during this stage so it’s better for them not to happen in the first place. Repeat the good stuff and you may need to shrink their world temporarily, avoiding certain triggers or locations for now, you can reintroduce them again later when your dog is in a better frame of mind.

4.Synapses (connections made during learning) are removed if they are not used. In simple terms when your dog learns something new; a connection is formed in the brain called a synapse. When you trained your puppy to sit, lay down and come when called; synapses were formed in the brain. These start to disappear during adolescence if they are not deemed as worthwhile.

How will this affect your dog’s behaviour?

Your adolescent dogs will appear to forget things you’ve taught them, especially in situations where they are distracted, overwhelmed or worried. You will probably feel irritated by this (I often hear the words “but they know how to do this!!”), but the truth is they probably have forgotten, or simply do not value this activity any more because it stopped being fun or worthwhile. Combine this with the increased impulsivity and feeling more emotional; it’s the perfect storm for a dog that appears to deliberately ignore you.

How should you deal with this type of behaviour?

Please don’t get annoyed with them; they are much more emotional at this age and negative experiences are much more likely to affect them in the longer term. So if you tell them off; they will actually be less likely to pay attention to you in other contexts because you are now unpredictable to your dog. If you repeat instructions over and over again while your dog ignores you, they will learn to ignore you further. It’s much more useful to take a deep breath, remind yourself that this is difficult for them right now and go back to basics. Help your dog to re-learn what they have forgotten starting off in less distracting situations just like you did when they were a tiny puppy. It’s your job to make training fun and worthwhile for them. If you have a young puppy you can do some pre-emptive work on this; ensure you practise all of the basics regularly, in lots of different places. Ensure you reward your puppy handsomely, toy play comes in handy here as you can have a good game of tug with your puppy after your short training sessions. Keep those synapses strong so they survive adolescence! Adolescence is not the time to reduce the rewards you use. You need to ensure you reward your dog even for things they know already. You are competing with lots of their urges when they are this age so you need to work harder to motivate them!

5. A region in the brain releases hormones which stimulate the release of testosterone in males and estrogen in females, plus vasopressin. Testosterone and estrogen gets dogs ready to reproduce. Vasopressin affects socialbehaviour, especially in males.

These hormones cause male dogs to be more interested in females. Testosterone is at its highest at around 10 months of age. Estrogen brings female dogs into their first season which means they are able to have puppies. Vasopressin increases scent marking plus competitive behaviour between dogs.

How will this affect your dog’s behaviour?

Male dogs will become increasingly obsessed with spreading their scent and sniffing that of others; this means male dogs often become intense pullers at this age, ignoring the discomfort it causes them when attached to a lead. If you have a large breed male dog; this will be hard on you, especially at around 10 months of age. Both male and female dogs can become more intense around other dogs and conflict is more likely, male dogs especially can become quite ‘rude’ by standing tall over other male dogs and getting their noses right into other dogs' private areas! Female dogs will often start marking with small amounts of urine in the lead up to their first season and can become less tolerant of dogs around them; especially at their back end. Holding your adolescent dog back from other dogs, as a standalone solution, often makes things worse and can lead to frustration related behaviour such grabbing at you, or reactive barking.

How should you deal with this type of behaviour?

This is all completely normal and telling your dog off may temporarily suppress the behaviour but will do nothing to help them learn the skills needed in the longer term. More space and lots of ‘brain processing time’ goes a long way; so rather than passing other dogs on walks in close proximity; get your dog more space, enough space that they can remain calmer and observe the other dog. This now gives you the opportunity to reward their calmness.Take extra tasty food on every walk so you are always ready to reward your dog for any good choices. Male dogs especially are more likely to get themselves into trouble with other dogs; they tend to charge over and this puts other dogs on the defense, adolescent male dogs are much more likely to retaliate in these situations. Use your lead more to prevent your dog charging up to others. A long line can help provide more feelings of freedom and thus reduce frustration. It’s much better to stick to their known social circle at this stage and avoid greeting unfamiliar dogs where you have no idea what the outcome will be. This is not the time to put them into situations with other dogs and hope for the best as play can easily turn bad.

Take home message:

 🐾 Adolescence begins at around 5-6 months of age and ends at around 2-3 years of age.

 🐾 Adolescence is not the time to make training more challenging for your dog, it’s the opposite.

 🐾 Be prepared to go back to basics with everything. This is not a sign of failure; it’s a sign that your dog is struggling with brain changes and that you understand this.

 🐾 Don’t decrease the training rewards; increase them.

 🐾 Up the management, it’s ok to use a long lead even if they were reliable off-lead previously! Asses each situation and set your dog up for success.

 🐾 Keep your relationship intact; be consistently trustworthy and don’t put them into negative situations.

 🐾 Increase the fun. Be silly with your dog and get creative with the games you play together, play like nobody is watching!

  🐾 Provide your adolescent dog with plenty of opportunities to do the things they enjoy in a safe and appropriate way, where they are learning the right skills rather than just forming bad habits.

 🐾 Your adolescent dog needs more space from triggers and more time to process situations.

🐾 Help your adolescent dog to makethe right decisions by making them easy and be there to celebrate and reward them, the small wins add up!

If you are struggling with your adolescent dog please feel free to get in touch claire@educatingpaws.co.uk

Blog written by Claire Mcknespiey of Educating Paws.