Life with a teenage woofy
I’ve been so busy and away from home for a short while working that before I knew it DIllon has just reached 10 months and Barley is about to be 5 years. Time is certainly flying with these two in the house. Yes we are at the teen stage so be warned all that enter our house.
There is something not so great about living with a teenage dog. I don’t think it’s just because he’s male, although the ‘teen male’ thing potentially seems to have another slant to it. Dillon at 10 months is officially going through that ‘awkward’ stage. It’s insane to think only a few months ago I was carrying him around in my back pack and now I could easily put my back out even trying to pick up this gangly teen.
From a visible nature he’s got all the signs of teendom, he’s got the legs that seem to have mind of their own growth and movement wise, he had started to get the dandruff and even had a spot on his under side - at that point I was giving into teendom. The ‘ugly’ stage is still there also if a little bit less as hormones are balancing out him into a male. His back end is still about an inch higher than his front with an odd dip in the middle - the cuteness of lab puppy seems to have left him somewhat. He also has what can only be labeled a ‘potentially manly odor’. Yes, Dillon is a teenage dirt bag.
His behavior has gone from the puppy chewfest to teenage loopy. He half knows how to behave, half knows his own strength - basically he half knows everything, the problem is the half he doesn’t. Barking and potentially aggressive behaviors somehow get confused in his brain with play and it all gets mixed in with a dash of hormone weirdness to create a half boy / half pup that has half a clue about things and the attention span of a brain damaged gold fish. Beds in crates don’t stand a chance as he’s now learning impatience - in his world he wants things ‘NOW’ and that should have lots of exclamation points after it. He has managed to injury himself recently by this over enthusiasm for all things being play. Limits are something he fails to see in anything currently.
The flip-side is there is the puppy inside still. It’s the puppy caught in a teen body thing. I mentioned his recent hurting of paw by over bouncing, this resulted in the inner pup showing up and he’s doing a nice line in ‘limp paw fuss me’ and sad puppy face. Add to this the grumpy teen confusion of barking and sighing (he’s developed the ‘must I’ sigh and the ‘weight of the world’ sigh). It’s a confusing time not helped by the fact from some angles he looks like a full grown dog and some a little pup still.
This is the most challenging stage and one that most doggies unfortunately end up being re-homed in. The puppy darling is growing up and if not eating you out of house and home they are potentially chewing it or doing various other not so great behaviors. It’s as true of the puppy stage that you just have to work through and make sure the negative things aren’t reinforced as good things. Sadly dogs do by their nature try everything - it’s true for humans - it’s all about ignoring it or using other negative but passive non-inforcement methods. Dillon still responds greatly to being ignored and all behaviors fade as you ignore.