Stages of Dog Training: Adolescence

Adolescents is the hardest stage of training. Hormones are being dumped into their systems even if they are already spaded or neutered.

These hormones are telling them be independent, be pushy, take control!

All the things we don’t like our dogs to do.

Interesting fact, the majority of dog in our local animal shelters are in this age group. They are no longer cute little puppies, so all the things we let are pups do now are troublesome and annoying if not downright dangerous.

The dogs are now much more powerful. If we have not trained in some control in them, we are in trouble!

Training now is a little different. Now it can be more challenging to get them to comply. But you now have a very nice foundation of training you can go forward with.

Now is when you need to be firm and fair! This is one of the most important times to do your training.

Training Now Is Much More Formal

In true adolescent form your dog will now be saying “I don’t want too” and you will be saying you have to!

Training takes on a firmer but still fair aspect. Your follow through is super important now. Your work is harder but will be so rewarding if you stick with it.

Your hardest job now is the follow through. If it comes out of your mouth you must now let your dog know what he needs to do.

Hopefully you have looked into having a dog trainer help you understand how a dog learns and show you the how to teach your dog.

If your dog is not listening to you when you say come here, then you must go get them or you will be teaching them to ignore you.

Sometimes this can be inconvenient.

But you will get a great return on your investment. This stage can last two years or more. But will get easier as you go along.

You will find your dog being much better behaved and a joy to be around.

We have two other blogs I have written on dog training that you might like to read. 1st is Stages of Dog Training: Puppy and the 2nd one is Stages of Dog Training: Adulthood