|
Rebels With Paws
Those weeks of careful monitoring have finally paid off - you're now the proud caretaker of a housebroken pup! But wait,
is that a yellow stain partway up the drapes? And after you unclip Rex's leash in the dog run, and he maniacally bounds around
for 45 minutes, it still takes a 10-minute game of "Catch Me If You Can" to get him back on-leash to go home. What
gives? Your puppy has grown into a teenager.
The wide world of Spot's
From the age of 6 to 18 months, your dog undergoes adolescence - that gawky stage between puppyhood and adulthood. Physically,
your dog has his adult teeth but still needs to chew on hard toys to properly set the teeth in his jawbone. That cottony puppy
coat is falling out during one tremendous shedding cycle, allowing the adult coat to grow in. He has almost reached his adult
height, but for now is all loose elbows and gangly movement.
And what movement! During adolescence, the domestic canine resembles a perpetual-motion machine that requires super-human
stamina to wear out. It's a good idea to find your pup a friendly pack of other canine adolescents to run with in the safety
of an urban dog run or suburban fenced-in yard. If your dog lacks canine friends, send him or her out with your resident human
teen to fetch a frisbee or go in-line skating.
Tiring out your canine teen will also save wear and tear on your abode. Chewing often results when a bored, anxious or
curious dog is allowed the run of the house. For the canine adolescent, boredom and curiosity can lead to major household
damage via chewing, digging and general re-organization. This damage could largely be avoided if caretakers would simply continue
to confine their dog in a training crate or dog-proof room whenever no one is around to monitor canine investigations. Canine
teens are not yet capable of the consistency it takes to earn the run of the place unsupervised.
Those paws, those eyes...that smell!
Hormones also play a major role in your canine's adolescence. Most dogs become sexually mature at 8 to 12 months of age;
at this time, females will experience their first estrus (heat) cycle and males will begin to lift their legs and show interest
in "the ladies." By spaying or neutering early (usually before the dog is 7 months old), you can save yourself and
your dog such varied experiences as increased indoor urination (females in heat will do this to advertise for suitors; for
intact males it's a way of marking territory), inter-dog aggression (primarily between dogs of the same sex who are compelled
to 'fight off the competition'), and the complete loss of attention span that attends raging hormones. This is not to mention
accidental matings, false pregnancies and the male teen's need to taste-test female urine...
Remedying Rover's memory loss
An adolescent, even a neutered one, will experience occasional lapses in attention. At times he may look at you as though
you just addressed him in Mandarin, trying to convince you that you have never before in his lifetime uttered "SIT!"
Handle these lapses the same way you would with an untrained dog. Take a step or two backward in your training program and
re-teach him the command by luring or placing him into the requested position. Be sure to make it worth his while with the
use of positive reinforcement. Keep his focus on you, using favorite toys and treats as lures. And keep your training sessions
short and functional, always ending with a game or playtime. If you take away the fun, he or she will show even less interest.
In order to get through your dog's adolescence, remember to provide plenty of exercise, continue to crate/confine when
he or she is unattended, spay or neuter, and keep your training sessions fun. And by all means, hang on to your sense of humor
at all times. Though your pup may try your patience, take heart - adolescence is one thing your dog is guaranteed to outgrow!
ASPCA Animal Watch - Winter 1995
© 1995 ASPCA
Courtesy of
424 East 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128-6804
212-876-7700
www.aspca.org
|
