Blog post by Amber Quann KPA-CTP, CPDT-KSA
Jamie is 7.5 months old now, and based on the behaviors we are seeing emerge over the past few weeks, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve officially entered into the “adolescence” developmental phase.
Puppies start to enter this developmental period around 6-8 months of age, and it typically lasts through the dog’s young adulthood at around 2 years of age. Of course the adolescent developmental period is wonderful, magical, beautiful and harmonious, and “teenaged” puppies are always perfect and well behaved.
Just kidding. Puppy adolescence is one of the toughest periods of development for many dogs, which makes it a pretty challenging and frustrating time for puppy guardians as well!
What does Adolescence Look Like?
During adolescence, certain behavior patterns emerge or intensify that make our beautiful baby puppies feel like little monsters! Some of the things to look out for:
Increased Independence - This increased independence has biological motivations across species, encouraging young to start adventuring out on their own and “leaving the nest” so to speak. It just so happens that this isn’t something we really want our household dogs to be doing much of, so it can cause a bit of conflict!
“Forgetting” How to Respond to Know Cues - During this time, I often hear things from puppy parents such as “But he KNOWS how to come when called, he’s just choosing not to!” or “He used to be so good at potty training, now he is having accidents in the house again.” We might be tempted to label this as “stubbornness” rearing its ugly head, but we have to recognize that this is a normal behavior of the adolescent period and not something that is inherently wrong with our puppies.
High Energy & Impulsiveness - At a time when our puppies are ramping up in their physical stamina and energy, they are also usually exhibiting an increase of what we might call “impulsive” behaviors. By this I mean behaviors that choose immediate reinforcement (feels good, gratifies urges, etc.) over delayed reinforcement. So our puppies have a lot more energy, and a lot less self-control at this stage, which can compound into all sorts of troublesome behaviors! Counter-surfing, chewing on inappropriate items, running away from you to keep playing in the yard instead of coming when called, etc. Your puppy is now charged up and ready to go, and their lack of self-control is allowing them to barrel off in all sorts of inappropriate directions!
What’s the Brain Up to?
While there isn’t a lot of research on brain development during adolescence in dogs specifically, there is research on this topic that has been done on adolescents of human, non-human primates, and rodent populations. The behaviors that emerge during adolescence in these species are similar to the ones that we observe in our young dog population, so while we still need more quality research specifically on adolescence in dogs, in the meantime we can use some of what we know from these other studies to get a closer idea of what might be happening to our puppies’ brains during this developmental period.
Basically, what we learn from studying adolescence in other species, is that this is a period where there is a lot of extra activity of the limbic system while the prefrontal cortex is still in development.
Limbic System - “A complex system of nerves and networks in the brain, involving several areas near the edge of the cortex concerned with instinct and mood. It controls the basic emotions (fear, pleasure, anger) and drives (hunger, sex, care of offspring).”
Prefrontal Cortex - “The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the cerebral cortex covering the front part of the frontal lobe. This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behaviour.”
So as individuals enter adolescence, they experience an increase in activity in the part of their brain that controls mood, emotions, and drive to fulfill urges. Simultaneously, the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for things like self-control, calm & rational decision making, and other functions that make the individual a pleasant member of a social group is still under development.
For our puppies, this looks like a lot of acting on what feels good in the moment instead of rational, self-controlled decisions (“I’m gonna run off and chase this butterfly even though my human is calling me!”). This is an oversimplification of the science, for sure, but I hope that it gives us all a little bit more compassion for our puppies as they are making decisions based on the brain power that is currently at their disposal, which is often less than what we’d like them to have when they are going through this challenging developmental stage!
What can We Do? (Save my Sanity!)
The good news is that this is a developmental period, meaning it’s not forever! Our puppies do “grow up” and learn how to control their impulses and make better decisions. They just need a little time, patience, and support to get through this! Here are a few practical suggestions for saving your sanity and continuing to love and enjoy your puppy through this adolescent period.
Don’t Put the Crate Away Yet - Even if your puppy is doing great with potty training, chewing, and sleeping through the night, the crate can be a really helpful tool for surviving adolescence with your sanity intact. Your puppy still needs quality naps, and as their energy increases into adolescence, they may have difficulty putting themselves into sleep mode on their own. This is where the crate time comes in. If you have done your crate training work well as a puppy, this should be easy to carry over into adolescence. The crate can be substituted for other types of management like exercise pen set ups, baby-gated into a quiet “nap-zone” like the laundry room, etc. Jamie still takes at least one nap in his crate every day, to supplement the brief naps he is choosing on his own while he is out and about. His naps in the crate are much deeper and longer than any of his self-chosen naps in another location, so the crate is still helping him get some good quality sleep that is essential for him making good decisions during awake time!
Use ALL the Enrichment Games & Puzzles - If your puppy has extra energy in the morning and evenings around mealtime, this is a perfect time to utilize their food from the bowl for some positive activity instead of “getting into trouble”. We’ve written here and here about our favorite types of food puzzles. You can also turn mealtimes into training times as well! I also recommend having some pacifier “lickable” toys (like Kongs, West-Paws, etc.) stocked up in the freezer so that you can pull this out easily throughout the day as your adolescent puppy needs a calming activity.
Get Creative With Your Reinforcement - Sometimes the treat in your hand just won’t be as exciting as the opportunity to chase that squirrel across the yard, especially during adolescence. This is a great time to get creative with your reinforcement strategies, and be a little unpredictable and fun for your puppy. Here are a few ideas for adding real-life reinforcers into your routine. Think about the 5 things that your adolescent puppy is most distracted by on your walks or other outdoor adventures. You can actually turn these into reinforcers for your puppy by giving them access to these distractions when they do something that you like. Additionally, incorporate some spontaneous reinforcements into your routine with your puppy, where your puppy gets a big enthusiastic “surprise” treat for doing something small like looking up at you when you are in the yard. My colleague Nina has some great thoughts on this here.
Review Basics - It’s never a bad time to go back and do a little review, and as your puppy is entering adolescence it is even more important. If you see your puppy “forgetting” how to do some of the cues they were a rockstar at previously, go back a few steps and build the behavior back up. The good news is that the behavior fluency will return post adolescence, if we continue to help our puppies remember that these good behaviors pay off consistently! Adventure Puppy Basics in our Virtual Classroom is a great way to start off with some review!
Set Your Puppy Up for Success - As your puppy is working through this developmental period, there might be situations that they just can’t handle responsibly & appropriately yet. Sometimes the best thing we can do to help our puppy during this is to modify the situation to a level they can handle, or avoid these situations entirely. For example, if your puppy has recently started jumping up on EVERY person that it sees with such enthusiasm, it’s probably a good idea to avoid areas with large crowds until your puppy has some improved self-control (comes with prefrontal cortex development) and has been able to rehearse a better behavior quite a bit. Instead, stand on the outskirts and let your puppy look and get rewarded for being calm near people. Similarly, if your puppy’s recall behavior suddenly falls apart (like Jamie’s has been), go back a step in your criteria and rely on some management tools like a long-line to make sure that they aren’t rehearsing and getting rewarded for the unwanted behavior of running off. I’m not saying to avoid difficult situations with your puppy entirely, but think about what behaviors you want your puppy practicing a lot of, and set up the situation so that those behaviors are most likely to happen! You and your puppy will both leave the situation feeling happier and more successful, which means you’ll want to go practice together again!
One last note - Adolescence is often a time period where the use of aversive training methods becomes really tempting, and it is even prescribed starting at this age by some behavior practitioners. I totally get it - after recently watching my puppy dance away from me with a “treasure” in his mouth instead of coming back when I called him, I understand the frustration! However, if we rush to apply unpleasant stimuli as punishment in situations where our dogs are primarily acting very consistently with their developmental stage, we can potentially do more harm than good. Since the limbic system is in hyperactive mode of feelings over-drive, the fallout of applying aversive training techniques during this developmental time period may be more severe.
Instead, let’s do our best to remember that this is a developmental period that we need to train & manage our puppies through with patience and grace instead of enforcing the law. If you see something you don’t like (like Jamie running away instead of coming when called!), go back to the drawing board of your training plan and pick a few places to do some workshopping.
Puppies entering adolescence are just that - young, socially immature creatures with very little self-control and a lot of drive to get their needs met as fast as possible. It can be very frustrating for us in the middle of it, but the good news is that it isn’t permanent! Pull out the whiteboard with your training plan and all the patience and love you can muster.
Your puppy needs you on their team during this developmental period, and this starts by recognizing that your puppy really isn’t trying to give you a hard time - they are just doing what puppies do, the best way that they know how right at this moment of development!
Keep your chins & paws up! We’ll get through this together!