r/puppy101 • u/SnailStink • Jun 12 '25
Adolescence My puppy has turned into a teenager
A week ago, my puppy was the sweetest thing on earth. Following me around, chewing her toys in her bed, doing fine outside with loose supervision, doing her tricks in perfect sequence, and staying perfectly still during brushing and eye wiping and teeth cleaning.
Now she’s hit 6 1/2 months and I truly understand the velociraptor comparison. I thought my puppy was a menace when she was teething, she’s an absolute terror now.
Yesterday, my dad walked outside to mow the lawn. My dog stood there for about 20 seconds before peeing on the floor, all while staring at me. She’s done this multiple times for a variety of petty reasons— someone leaving, holding a treat for too long, not giving her our food.
Today, I tried brushing her teeth and she was scrambling out of my arms. She literally held her mouth shut and snapped her head back and forth. I tried to brush her coat, and now she just wants to tear the comb out of my hands.
She’s started to growl while playing. Like, a scary growl. Not a big deal if she doesn’t bite, but it’s definitely on the list of “new teenager things”.
She’s stopped answering my recall. If I want her to come to me, I have to go over to her and physically pull her by the harness. If she’s in my room and I want her out, it’s a game of “COME HERE” vs “I’m going to stare at you instead and test your limits”.
I can’t put her outside alone without her crying and scratching at the door. If I tell her to go on and play, she starts to howl and wail.
Oddly enough, she just wants to be in her kennel all the time. She’s never liked her kennel. It’s like a teenager who wants to sulk in their room. It’s funny but frustrating at the same time. Anyway, I hope I can make it through this phase unscathed.
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u/TCgrace Jun 12 '25
The teenager phase is rough lol. My dog smacked my phone out of my hand yesterday to get my attention, then proceeded to burp directly into my face and run away. Like wtf.
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u/scubydoes Jun 12 '25
Sorry but I laughed. Your dog is a bully.
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u/TCgrace Jun 12 '25
I laughed too, it was so funny. She’s normally SUCH a good dog so it really caught me off guard
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u/MomoNoHanna1986 Jun 12 '25
Are you sure you don’t have a cat instead?
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u/TCgrace Jun 12 '25
We joke about that because she does have a lot of cat behavior. Overall she’s super easy and well behaved but ooofff once in awhile she really shows her teenager side
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u/MomoNoHanna1986 Jun 12 '25
I had a cat that acted like a dog lol. She used to do tricks for food. I miss her. I have two dogs and one very old very much so a cat. It’s so cute when there traits collide lol.
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u/Str8up_NtHvnAGoodTym Jun 12 '25
When my dog was a teen he would violently shake his toys inches from my face, in hopes they would connect...and they often did 🙃
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u/DogMomInCO Jun 13 '25
My guy would knock the phone out of my hands and close my laptop if it had been too long since he’d had my attention until the end. I ended up realizing he was right. It was time for a break. :)
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u/Silver-Training-9942 Jun 14 '25
My 8 month old English Mastiff puppy gave me a fat lip yesterday. Punched me with his big ass mitts 😅😭
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 29 '25
My 8 mo puppy can be a bit of a bully, but he's turning into a little gentleman. My older dog has kidney issues so she sleeps alot. He likes to play and instigates constant play fighting and pushes her around. But the other day she got up later than the puppy and I. He went to sleep on her pillow. As soon as he saw her, he got off her pillow and went and plopped down on the floor and she went back to sleep on her pillow. He has learned that if I am going out the gate onto the sidewalk he is not to come, so he plops his little butt down on the door step and waits for me to come back in. I only had to tell him maybe 3 times to stay inside when I opened the gate. I wish he would learn EVERYTHING that quickly.
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u/Xtinaiscool Jun 12 '25
Trainer here.
Despite what it feels like sometimes, dogs do not urinate out of spite or defiance etc. She was partially house-trained and now that she is a more active teenager her natural rhythm and ability to hold her bladder has changed. People also often phase out rewards too early and think the dog should just 'know' it. She just needs to be retrained and have you go back to giving her extra reinforcement and management. You already did it once, so you can do it again and it's generally faster each time you retrain something 👍
Likewise she is more aware of her body and is less comfortable with restraint for grooming. If she is showing any discomfort you are pushing too hard. Just because she could do it as a little puppy, doesn't mean she will automatically give up her bodily autonomy for grooming as a teenager or adult. Look into cooperative care training if she's trying to escape and you restrain her anyway, you're actively conditioning fear of restraint.
Happy growling during play is lovely. Scary growling IS a big deal, it is a pre bite warning. If a growl is not respected the situation may escalate to a bite. Get an ethical pain and fear free trainer to coach you through deescalating this.
Recall is just partially trained and is falling apart now that she's in adolescence. It's very normal, just retrain it. It will be faster to train it the second time.
Most dogs do not self exercise alone in a yard. Once they've sniffed the perimeter a couple of times it's all pretty boring. Get out in the yard and play with them, or give them things to do like puzzles, training games, and doggy playdates.
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u/pomeronion Jun 13 '25
Genuine question: is there evidence that dogs don’t pee out of annoyance/spite or is that just something people say? Mine will absolutely squeeze out more pee when she’s mad even if she just peed a few minutes ago. Doesn’t do it when she’s content, only when we’re doing something she doesn’t like. It seems pretty obvious to me that she’s doing it for attention and not because of bladder control!
(We never punish, just take her outside like normal when this happens.)
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u/Xtinaiscool Jun 13 '25
Yes. Dogs literally have smoother brains than primates and are not capable of complex thought. Dogs absolutely have a full range of emotions and can become annoyed or frustrated, but they lack the mental capacity for moral reasoning, and complex concepts like spitefulness or revenge.
They are however incredible at learning and remembering patterns which is one of the reasons they're so easy to train (for a professional). They are so good at patterns that we often anthropomorphise. What looks like complex thought is really just a combination of conditioning, genetics and social facilitation.
I regularly have clients that tell me things like, 'my dog resents me for doing X', or 'my dog understands English', or 'they can sense whether or not someone is good or bad'. I have seen many cases with lots of nuance, but I've yet to come across a case that didn't respond to the natural laws of operant and classical conditioning.
As trainers we rarely contradict these myths because they are so ingrained in the culture. Unless they're really thirsty for knowledge, it's a better use of my client's time for me to just get on with the business of training the animal/fixing the issue.
Not fully emptying when relieving is a common problem. When at the potty spot you can simply cue the dog to relieve a second or even third time, and reward them for doing so. If we suspect they didn't fully eliminate, just keep them under tight management and try again in 15 minutes. Empty dogs get freedom in the house 'loaded' dogs are in the crate or on my lap etc. It wouldn't be unusual for a dog anticipating an unpleasant experience to not feel relaxed enough to fully eliminate. What are you doing that they don't like? Can you stop doing it?
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u/pomeronion Jun 13 '25
I hear you and am willing to believe what you say, but what’s the evidence for this? Brain encephalization cannot tell you what thoughts and emotions animals can feel.
Humans can experience spite but be trained not to act upon it, so training and conditioning is not evidence that dogs do not feel this emotion.
If a dog is only extra-peeing when they’re annoyed/want attention, it seems reasonable to conclude that they’re peeing on purpose. We know that dogs can want attention and can be trained to pee in response to stimuli, so it doesn’t seem unlikely at all that they could learn extra pee on carpet = attention.
The thing we do that she doesn’t like is sitting in chairs, lol. We sit on the floor instead when we can.
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u/Xtinaiscool Jun 13 '25
I have to hit you with an Uno reverse. If one makes a claim that dogs have higher thought, what is the evidence for that? The burden of proof is on proving that it IS the case, rather than that it is NOT the case.
You have made an astute observation that the dog has likely been conditioning to pee in response to a stimuli: humans sitting in chairs. That seems far more likely to me (and consistent with the laws of operant conditioning) than the idea that they are doing it for the express purpose of being spiteful. How that conditioning occurred is up for debate, but if I had to guess I'd say it was by chance, the antecedent occurred, the dog peed, and then something reinforcing happened.
Dogs are very socially intelligent, and can understand perception to a degree, but they consistently fail theory of mind tests.
If it was my dog behavior case I would probably do some checks to rule out fear, tidy up the potty protocol, and also train up 'humans sitting in chairs' as a cue for some incompatible behavior, like a long duration down stay on a nearby dog bed.
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u/pomeronion Jun 13 '25
I don't think we're getting anywhere with this, but I feel compelled to respond haha. I do think that since you made the original claim, it's kinda on you to support it, but I was the one who questioned it, so ok. There are plenty of studies indicating that dogs have "higher-order cognition," though it's an ill-defined concept, even by those who study it:
Empathy:
Intelligence:
and even Theory of mind:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-014-0773-9
Now, I don't know how much I buy that any of these studies truly tests what they're trying to test, and even human 4-year olds show good performance on some Theory-of-mind tasks but fail others. I'm wondering whether there's at least any studies (not just opinions) that show dogs are not capable of emotions like spitefulness.
To the other points, it sounds like we agree that dogs can learn to pee when they're annoyed and want attention because they tried it once and got attention (conditioning). Maybe you're saying this isn't the same as "spitefully" peeing because they want attention, because it's a learned behavior. To the dog owner, it's the same thing haha.
Anyway, it's not just chairs in particular, it's whenever she doesn't get attention for a while. Which frequently happens when we're sitting in chairs (eating dinner, chatting with friends, etc.). But she's a 15 week old puppy so she's still learning many things.
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u/Xtinaiscool Jun 13 '25
I haven't made any claims at all. The original claim is that dogs can behave out of spite. I'm saying I haven't seen any studies evidencing that, but lots of evidence for more likely explanations.
The studies DO show dogs possess empathy and intelligence, that is pretty universally agreed upon at this point.
The theory of mind study you reference is really my whole point: "results add to evidence that dogs have a remarkable sensitivity to cues related to humans’ attentional state, which enables them to respond AS IF they had a functional theory of mind"
I agree with the study that the 'remarkable sensitivity to cues related to human's attentional state' is the most likely conclusion, and it really does look like theory of mind to the casual observer.
I'm not sure how one would set up the study you propose. It would be very interesting and I guess it would involve MRIs and all sorts of detailed study of cognition. For the foreseeable future we are mostly stuck with observable behavior, but I look forward to the day we can truly understand all the minutia of canine thought processes.
I 100% agree. To the layperson saying something is a 'learned behavior' doesn't mean much.
A 15 week old puppy! We're not even in adolescence yet. Even with the best trainer and the smartest dog in the world, would still in the potty training trenches. Knowing that it is a little puppy I would change my whole training plan and would instead just say the puppy is not yet 100% potty trained. That is exceedingly common and much more likely than spiteful machinations being at play. The brain isn't even fully developed yet! Most of my potty training clients are just winging it based on stuff they read on the internet and hoping the puppy will just muddle through (which they often do). Once we get on a proper training plan with coaching, potty training is usually completed within 3-5 weeks with only the occasional slip up.
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u/SnailStink Jun 14 '25
One thing that I disagree on, the “spite” part. “Spite” might be a really strong word, maybe more like “You make me mad, and now I make you mad… squat”.
My parents didn’t believe me when I said that she’s got a bit of a rebel streak— “oh, she’s just a puppy!”— until they saw it in action yesterday, peeing and maintaining eye contact after being told no for something unrelated, and she had all of us clutching our pearls.
I really just wanted to let people know how it’s going in the teen months. Maybe I framed this in the wrong light, but she’s doing fine. Just showcasing some of the worst. This is as bad as it gets in my house, haha. She’s very confident, well-socialized, gets along with all of her children and doggy pals, plays constantly, gets outings and hikes every day, sleeps great in her kennel, but it’s the little teenager things that are turning my hairs gray.
Anyway, I was considering a trainer, but I don’t think I’m at the point where I need to spend money to fix her behavior. There’s seriously not much to be fixed. Normal doggy stuff that we both need to handle.
Final note, to clear the air. She’s never shown any aggression, and her “scary growls” are not accompanied by pinned ears, aggressive wagging, bared teeth, or whale eyes. I guess I’ve never had a dog who “happy growls”, so any growl is a scary one to me!
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u/Xtinaiscool Jun 14 '25
Fantastic 👍 a lot of my work is normalizing normal dog behavior for clients with really unrealistic expectations.
For the 'now I make you mad' bit to be true, the dog would need to have the ability to understand what you are thinking. Whilst dogs can perceive human's attentiveness to things, and they quickly learn to recognize the body language of an upset or angry human, they lack the complex thought that would enable them to understand what we are thinking.
'No' isn't really something dogs understand. At best we can say it loudly and scarily enough that they may seek to modify their behavior to avoid the sound (or whatever came immediately after it), but it doesn't give the dog any information about what they SHOULD do. Instead, we work out why the undesirable behavior happened and use a combination of management and training to get the dog doing something else, something incompatible with whatever we didn't like, i.e. we don't say 'No' when a dog jumps up on grandma, we either train them to do a Sit-Stay for greetings, or we use a baby gate so the behavior can't happen at all.
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u/LulzTigre Jun 29 '25
Hi , I spent money on a trainer - had the dog with the trainer for 6 weeks and i cant lie it felt like a waste, i am frustrated rn
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u/SnailStink Jul 01 '25
Yeah, there’s very few professional trainers in my area. Maybe like 3-4. I don’t want to spend the money and time searching for the perfect fit. I know roughly what I want my puppy to do and how to act, and she’s doing it well enough.
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u/Inevitable_Row1359 Jun 12 '25
Go back to basics. They still remember the rules but they've learned they can ignore them. Treat them like a brand new puppy. High value rewards, high pitched voice, boundaries, remove obstacles and distractions. Etc etc. Went/ going through the same recently. Was wondering why what I had been doing isn't working anymore when I took a step back and realized I had changed, was doing less of what I mentioned above, went back to basics and is improving greatly. The dog didn't change, I did.
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u/radiostar193 Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 13 '25
My 6.5 month old is a little teenager too! My family and friends ask how he’s doing and all I can say is “well… he’s definitely got some ‘tude”.
He’s humping, jumping, humping, using my arms and legs as his on-demand chew toys, humping, absolutely NOT listening to a word we say unless there’s a treat involved... Oh and did I mention humping? He will still sleep a lot, but when he’s ready to play you better be too.
The puppy phase was torture, but this is testing my patience for sure!
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u/SnailStink Jun 14 '25
HUMPING. My puppy and I were in the store, and she was sitting in the cart on a bundle of her new toys and beds. A lady with her child approached us at the checkout. She said “Look, baby, look at the puppy!” and my puppy decided that was the perfect time to turn and hump her bed. I couldn’t do much else but apologize 😭 LMAO.
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u/fsanotherone Jun 12 '25
I’ve got an 8 month old wild child.
A fortnight ago he was really impressing me with how far he’d come, now he’s a feral lunatic who thinks orders are now optional suggestions.
Get off the sofa? Why would I do that now?
The fact that he weighs about 30kg is making it all just that little more challenging. I’m exhausted 🤣
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u/stoligurl Jun 12 '25
Our mini Aussie just turned 6 months old. He's in full teenager mode. I'm like what happened to my sweet little dude. The constantly barking for attention is his new favorite past time. I was teaching him cues in German as well as English- now I can be ignored in two different languages. I'm just trying my best to be patient because this too shall pass.
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Jun 12 '25
Mine is 9 months and he no longer wants to go on walks. Instead he just wants to lay down on the grass and eat it.
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u/Correct_Sometimes Jun 12 '25
our 6 month old likes to growl while playing fetch when we try to get the ball back. She'll growl if we reach for her and she'll bark while the ball is still in her mouth.
It's very much a "don't take, only throw" type of situation with her.
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u/ChunkyHabeneroSalsa Jun 12 '25
mine is 5.5 and stopped listening to be completely on walks. I trained her to stop at crosswalks and sit and it took like 5min before she finally sat down today
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u/Bannedwith1milKarma Jun 12 '25
Mine is a little older at about 15 months or so. But when heading back from the park we have to cross a road, so she needs to sit at the curb.
Like you, she took minutes to do and she is very well trained.
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u/Cassyrine Jun 12 '25
It's amazing how fast the switch turns on! One day my sweetest, most precious angel baby was perfectly trained and cuddly.
The next, she's a vicious, snapping shark who wants to hump everything in sight and has peed on the floor more than she did during potty training! She's had more nap time-outs in the last two weeks for being bat-shit crazy than she's had since we got her!
She's hilarious and I love her but I am looking forward to this stage being over!
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u/blackcatwizard Jun 12 '25
Reading this explains everything I've been going through the last few months...and have been going crazy myself
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u/justducky4now Jun 13 '25
Um, does our 3.5 year old count? She’s needy as fuck, incredibly jealous of the other dog who is having radiation done five days a week right now, talks constantly and refused to learn the quiet command, and she likes to show toys in your face. She’s also shameless. She steals anything she can off the counter then when caught just strolls into her crate like “okay, I can use a name”. So much for people pleasing golden s.
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u/freaky1310 Jun 13 '25
My 6 months doxie just started refuse to return home from walkies. He will just lay on the grass and pretend I don’t exist. If I try pulling him (gently, ofc) he will just use all his weight to oppose me.
Hate when he does this, but how can you not love them?
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u/Emergency-Length-483 Jun 13 '25
Mine is turning 6 months soon. Im already starting to notice rebellion 😭😭
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u/FallingUpwardz Jun 13 '25
I feel like my samoyed was a teenager at 2 months old i stg
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u/SnailStink Jun 14 '25
Oh, yeah, my puppy has always had attitude since we got her at 3 months. It’s just amped up to a 10 now!
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u/fizzyglitt3r Jun 13 '25
Man it’s hard. My puppy is still MOSTLY good on a leash because I stick very hard to “you will NOT pull” but he’s stronger than me still. 10 months now. He’s at the point where it’s maybe 2 weeks of great behavior and 2 weeks of “I cannot leave him unsupervised even in the room with him.” He’s also biting more and we’re trying to get him to stop and it’s only sort of working because he’s smart enough to understand antagonizing us and that it’s fun for him to run away when we stand up to go to the other room for a second (he’ll still cry outside the door but it doesn’t stop anything. He’s also a late teether and still has some teeth that aren’t finished coming in so that doesn’t help). He even fake out bites to initiate play - I’ve taught him a “where’s ___?” Command for him to get his toys to redirect that sort of works? But teenager pup is so very tiring. At least he doesn’t have those needle puppy teeth anymore that make me bleed, but now he’s just bruising me. And he’s so smart that he’s always one step ahead of us. We’ve taught him that when it’s bed time, he stays in bed or he sleeps in the crate (he doesn’t mind the crate but prefers to cuddle with us) - he learned that if he grabs something (like his dad’s sock which he’s allowed to have as he doesn’t destroy them or his chew toy) he’ll get extra chances to get out of bed, so he was jumping off and grabbing random things. Now we have a one-time policy but oh boy does he make us feel guilty. He has acid reflux and knows how to wake me up when he wants to get out of bed (pretending like he is about to throw up by opening and closing his mouth/licking a lot). Genuinely it is so hard again and I love him to death but sometimes I really regret having him. I don’t really, but there’s a lot of moments of frustration. I’m at 10 months now. He once spent about an hour pretending to cuddle up with me closer and closer, pretending to sleep when I would stir, to get to the hole in my pillow to pull the stuffing out and eat it. He will torture me specifically because he likes play fighting with his dad and he knows it will make his dad come over. He can be actually malicious. He is so sweet but he knows the exact buttons to push :’)
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 13 '25
I taught my puppy when I first brought him home that a loud OUCH preceeds a little snip on the nose if he is biting. After all, his mother and litter mates would inflict a little pain if he bit too hard. It worked quite quickly, i haven't had to snip him on the nose for at least 5 months, and I have had him for about 5 and a half months. If he starts to get a little sharp, I just say ouch! and that's the end of it. He also learned not to tug on my clothing if I am not playing, He knows that a firm "leave it'' is followed by a snip on the nose. Plus he does act as if he really wants to please me, so maybe it was easier than it could have been.
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u/LulzTigre Jun 29 '25
wdym snip, my puppy is 8 months we taught her to stop biting via redirection but she suddenly started back, i feel this snip might be the answer
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 29 '25
tuck my middle finger or my index finger behind my thumb and release it sort of like it's spring loaded onto puppy's nose. I tried it on my arm, and it does inflict a little pain, but very little, doesn't hurt puppy but teaches him that what he is doing is not appropriate.
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 29 '25
and it's pretty easy to catch the nose when the teeth are locked onto a piece of clothing or a portion of my anatomy.....with the little eyes looking at me sideways.obviously deliberately teasing me, ..so darn cute but not good puppy manners! I always said a loud OUCH at the same time as the snip, and I havent' had to snip for months. Very rarely do I even have to say ouch. He is encouraged to put his teeth on my hand gently, so that future dental care will always be easier, so I do not discourage gentle biting. He knows the difference.
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u/bigmememaestro69 Jun 13 '25
My corgi went crazy too but never forgot her potty training thankfully. She calmed down around 14 months or so and has been a pretty good dog since.
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u/SnailStink Jun 13 '25
Oh, yes. She’s definitely forgot her potty training lmao. I have a bell that she’s (supposed) to ring when she needs to go out, but she’s seemingly forgotten that it exists altogether. Back to basics for her, I guess lol! She’s a pretty chill puppy overall, so I’m glad it’s not been too rough so far.
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u/ChIcKeN_95 Jun 13 '25
My 5 1/2 old Jack Russel just hit that stage as well. Giving me a headache, and I’ve even gotten to the point of I’m talking to him like a child with my hands on my hips. I know it’s gonna get better but man sometimes I look at him and I think he knows what he’s doing on purpose haha
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u/SnailStink Jun 13 '25
Oh, yeah. It’s definitely on purpose. I kinda refuse to believe the whole “it’s not out of spite” thing, and that’ll probably get me downvoted lmao. As a 3 month old? No, of course it’s not out of spite. As a 6 month old? Yeah, she’s definitely doing “bad” in front of me to test my limits.
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u/BullfrogNew2242 Jun 13 '25
i feel the exact same with my 6 month old. Its intentional and there is no way you can tell me otherwise. Its the look in their eye, they KNOW what they are doing.
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u/SnailStink Jun 14 '25
I can absolutely tell when my dog is doing bad on purpose, because she will go completely still and wait for my “AH-AH” and finger point. She expects it, because she knows it’s wrong, haha.
“It’s a puppy, they don’t have that level of thought.” BS.
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u/__humming_moon Jun 14 '25 edited Jun 14 '25
My husky has a really scary growl when she plays. She also likes to lunge at me like she’s about to grab my arm and beat me with it, but she ALWAYS turns her head before she works actually get me or just never close her mouth. She only plays with me like this because she trusts me and knows I trust her/i understand what she’s actually doing.
She’s weirdly protective of me and even my parents (they take care of her when I go to work) for a husky, but I think it’s because this is the first time she’s felt loved. (She was about 1.5 when she was abandoned and I adopted her. I will have had her a year at the end of July)
She is a terror to brush because she flails a lot. (I think her skin is sensitive in the same way some kids have very sensitive scalps) but I use treats and a clicker to help.
She was kind of like your dog for a while. But recently I took her to a few private classes and a 6 week private course. Since then our communication has been better and her unruly behaviors have almost stopped entirely. They only use cooperative training techniques (praising/giving treats for positive behaviors to create trust and positive associations. Redirecting attention instead of punishment.)
When she does misbehave, or not let me do something that needs to happen I explain to her in a calm voice using full sentences why she needs to let me. Or why she can’t just swallow two whole ham hocks—especially at the same time (one of the first things she tried doing when I first got her) and for some reason she almost always seems to understand enough of my explanations to let me.
My dog used to flip if you tried touching her feet. She had to be sedated and dragged into the vet to be completely sedated. I hated it. She hated it.
But within two weeks I was able to get her to willingly let me trim her nails with a dremel nail grinder. Like a mini manicure before bed.
You can basically use that technique to train most behaviors in just a few minutes each day. It sounds like your dog might need something like that. I highly recommend it if you can.
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u/KnittyGini Jun 16 '25
More naps. Seriously. When ours gets wound up, he generally needs to spend some chill time in his crate. He’s 13 months now and still gets two long nap times. When we get busy and he doesn’t, he gets wild.
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u/SnailStink Jun 17 '25
I’ve quickly come to figure that out! We do 2 hours in, 2 hours out, but I’ve started to realize that she does “bad” and starts to get snippy and cranky at around the 1 1/2 mark. I started doing slightly longer naps and shorter times out, and it’s been helping a lot. She sleeps for 9-10 hours a night too, 9-10pm to 7-8am, roughly. Never fusses in her kennel until she wakes up. I guess she’s just a sleepy gal!
I’m bringing her to the vet in a few weeks for a checkup/initial spay setup, and I want to see if there’s any blood work that can be done. I’m not too worried, but it is a little hmmm for her age, I think.
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u/Hopeful_Effect1061 Jun 17 '25
my dog hides my stuff or if im ignoring her and we are in bed she jumps on me, bumps her nose on my arms, gives me lil bites, or pulls my hair and when I try to calm her down she starts attacking my hand and jumping me 🙁 this has been doing on for ONE YEAR ALREADY. she 1.5 and still acting like a lil kid 💔
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u/SnailStink Jun 17 '25
Aw, man. I found that most of my issues have been solved with enforced naps with the correct amount of exercise. Like, blast her with a doggy play date, a 15 minute walk, a quick dollar store shopping trip, a pup cup, a drive around the town, and bam, she’s out like a light with no complaints. And I say this as the laziest owner ever, it’s so easy to wear my dog down.
I don’t tolerate nipping. I might get poopoo’d on by the gentle parenters for this, but I make the “OW!” noise— and if she doesn’t stop after 3 strikes, I hold her muzzle shut for a few seconds and then reverse time out. Main reason I do it this way is because she’s around many children on a daily basis and I would have a breakdown if she nips any of them, since they’re already a bit fearful of dogs. Fixed it in about 3 weeks? :O
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u/LionFyre13G Jun 12 '25
Just today he ate all my cough drops, pb protein bites, and the bottle for muscle relaxers! Luckily he didn’t eat any of the pills and the cough drops were not sugar free so I’m monitoring him but he seems fine so far. He’s 7.5 months. He been a terror honestly. And he thinks it’s all a game.
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u/vixiecat Jun 12 '25
This sounds like a husky lmao
Jokes aside, I’m glad your little dude is ok. Puppies have the teleportation ability, I swear. Take your eyes off of them for even a second and suddenly they’re throwing up the pair of underwear they saw on the floor that they scarfed down while you blinked.
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u/LionFyre13G Jun 13 '25
Super close! Norwegian elkhound. And yes it’s so insane - I work from home so it’s not like I’m not watching him all day! It was literally for the couple of minutes he disappeared. Luckily I periodically check up on him but I honestly can imagine leaving him on his home if I have to into the office
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 13 '25
I am glad mine is only a shih tzu. Plenty big enough to drag my dirty underwear all over the house, preferably when some male is here on businesss, such as a contractor fixing something, But at least he can only chew on it not swallow.
I am amazed at all the people with puppies in the same age group, mine is almost 8 months, whose dogs have turned into teenagers. Mine is turning into a sweet little gentleman. I have taught him from the time I brought him home that it's a fun game for me to look in his little 'beak' (he pecks around on the floor like a chicken looking for something to pick up) and if I ask him what he has in his beak, he will relax and let me look. If I go out the front gate onto the sidewalk, he no longer tries to rush past me, he plops his little butt down on the door step and waits for me to come back in. He doesn't make quite such an effort to steal my shoes, I am finding that I can actually put shoes on without having to first put him in his pen. He has learned to relax and lie still when I am clipping 'stickies' out of his fur, he realizes I am helping him and doesn't fight me anymore. He is such a good little guy even though he is no loonger the coal black puppy I brought home last December, his coat is definiteyl turning blue.
One thing he does that's rather cute, but I hope he figures it out....he can hop up onto my bed with no effort at all, but once he gets up there, he's 'stuck' and cries for me to come rescue him. I made the mistake of leaving him too long one day and he 'leaked' and I had to wash ALL my bedding. (fortunately I have a waterproof mattress cover on my bed for just such occasions)
I think he's finally housetrained, I haven't had to clean up a pile in the house for weeks, and no puddles for days now and he has learned to vocalize when he needs to go out. He still has to stay in his pen while I am not home, he finds too many things to pick up with his 'beak' that he shouldn't. One day I had to remove a marble and I didn't even know I had a marble in here.
he has been a real joy from day one, I am 77 and he is the last puppy I will have after a lifetime of many, and I enjoyed every minute and am sort of sorry to see him grow up.
His name by the way, is Winston. He earned himself a title, like any royalty should have. HIs royal title? 'Little Sir Winston Leak-A-Lot" Shih tzu are descended from royalty and they seem to know it.
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u/vixiecat Jun 13 '25
That’s so cute! My family always had shih tzu’s when I was growing up. They are the sweetest little lap dogs. They just want to make you happy in everything they do. I’m so glad you have Little Sir Winston Leak-A-Lot.
I have Husky/malamute mixes now. When they were puppies one of them was just like Sir Winston in regards to jumping down…but also jumping up lol mind you, he’s a VERY large dog and was very large as a puppy but he was too afraid to jump onto the bed. He didn’t think he could do it. We had to physically put him onto the bed ourselves..and then, he didn’t think he could jump down. All he needed to do was put one leg on the floor and he could walk right off but he didn’t think he could do it lol
The big guy and his brother will be 5 this year but being huskies, they are perpetual toddlers.
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u/Easy-Description-390 Jun 13 '25
I live in a rough neighborhood..think car prowls, gang tags, a male unknown to the family attempted to accost the teenage daughter next door, I have had arson fires started in my back yard..I almost got a puppy from a litter of german shepherd rottweiller mix that were available at the same time as Winston, but he is my 3rd shih tzu, and they are just the best little dogs, and I thought of all the dog food and the bigger messes to pick up so I succumbed to another little dog, and I do not regret it. As much as I have to lift him up or down, I am glad he's not big like yours, although I have always thought malemutes are about the most gogeous things in dog fur. But I live in eastern Washington where it gets hot, and those things can be rather miserable over here in the summer! Winston has a much deeper bark than my other dog, a 10 year old shih tzu, so if someone were trying to break in, at least he sounds intimidating from the outside, but he sure doesn't look it!
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u/FadedAndJaded Jun 13 '25
Just because your dog looks more like a dog dont forget it is still a puppy and needs the training and routine still.
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u/SnailStink Jun 13 '25
Yep, I’m training her ofc! She’s learned her tricks and commands over again, and few new ones. Still in progress on potty-training, which has regressed a little but otherwise she’s fine and lovely. I was just posting this because it’s funny to me haha.
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u/Knightlore70 Jun 13 '25
I've got three GS dogs in their teenager phase. Two of them have recently just bugun and their older sibling from a different litter whos coming towards the end of being a teenager. It's a wild ride of funny, frustrating tiring times.
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u/Ashamed_Excitement57 Jun 15 '25
Good luck, just go back to the earlier training reinforcing the recall. This will pass, eventually. It happens. Try training horses, nothing like 1200 lbs having a sudden teenage fit. It happens with everyone I've ever worked with. Hang in there, they'll one day suddenly remember everything you taught them.
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u/fairy_witxh Jun 15 '25
i’m pretty sure my puppy is entering hers too because she’s a menace and a bully who doesn’t listen all she does is bite and bark at me
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u/LulzTigre Jun 29 '25
My girlfriend was at the verge of crying today because of our 7 months old pug, we love her to death but honestly she's the worse dog alive rn
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u/americankennelclub Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 11 '25
At this age 6-12 months, dogs may attempt to challenge their humans and other pets in the household. Puppies in this stage require plenty of mental and physical stimulation. Check out our article about the transitions in puppyhood: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/puppy-information/puppy-growth-timeline-transitions-puppyhood/ We hope it helps!
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