8 month old is becoming unmanageable what do I do?

[philipe]

I’ve had my 7 month old for about 3 months now, I took her from a family member who was not caring for her as she should’ve. She came to us with 0 training, not even house training and extremely malnourished.

Since then we’ve brought her back up to health and she seems to have no form of trauma from the ordeal. For the first 2 months she was an absolute angel, she picked up all her training super quickly, we had her house trained in less than a month and she loved spending time with us. However for the past 2 or 3 weeks things have been getting more an more difficult. She is constantly misbehaving, whining or destroying things. She has started going potty in the house and in her crate. She will try and pull herself and us into the road when we walk her. If we take her to the beach and let go of her lead she will immediately run off and we have to chase her. She has started jumping up at people on her walks, she won’t respond to her name anymore. It’s just like something flipped in her and she’s a complete different dog. The only positive is that she’s gotten much better in her social skills and is much less awkward around other dogs now. I really don’t know what to do with her and honestly I’m considering sitting down with my partner and explaining that I don’t think we can keep her. Does anyone have any tips?

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@philipe Not to worry- this is totally normal. Doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with your dog, or you. She is going through adolescence and training regression is normal. When dogs are very little, you are their entire world. Like they aren't big enough yet to see past you. But now she is, and she's realizing that there's a big, exciting world out there packed with rewards and she wants all of them - now! It's your job to make sure you are more rewarding.

Go back to the basics and reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. Don't let her off lead if she's not trustworthy. Re-train her on things she is struggling with. ALWAYS have treats on hand to reward good behavior. We keep treats in glass jars around the house so they're always accessible quickly. Bring treats on walks so you can reward her for listening. Adolescence is, like in humans, an extremely formative stage of your dog's development. The habits that she creates during this time (from now until she's probably about 2), good or bad, will be much harder to break than puppy habits.

The hard core adolescent stage only lasts a few months, but until she's about 2 (depending on the type of dog) she's still developing mentally and emotionally, and training is wildly important. Be as consistent as you can. You can do this!!

Edit to add: if you haven't started training her to settle, you should definitely do that! We used a mat to train being calm and it made such a big difference for us (we have three dogs, two of which we raised from puppyhood at the same time). You can eventually use the mat to help her stay relax in public. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a difference this made for us, I can't believe I forgot it in my original reply!

 

[danielgithahu]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Could you provide more details on your calmness training? Would love to work on this.

 

[hotboi2]

@danielgithahu Not the commenter, but I use calmness training. It's a lot about a soft, low voice for me. I have labs, and they can get hyper. So, I have many techniques to keep the energy levels down. For example. I get home from work, I have 2 hyped up dogs at the door. I walk in, put my stuff down, greet my husband, and sit down to take my shoes off. After my shoes are done, then I acknowledge their greetings. By then, there's no jumping, over excitement, or pushy behavior.

When I leave for work, they know I'm putting my work shoes on. When I'm ready to walk out the door, it's a kiss on the nose and be good, watch the house. All in a calm voice.

The ball is a big issue with over excitement. My girl will, at 14, bite me if I don't stop her from getting too excited. It's always sit before I throw anything. Every time. I can wait. Sit before food, sit before play, and sit is a go-to. It's always in a low voice with calmness. When they wander out of the yard, they get 3 warnings, and I go out and redirect back into the yard.

I just visited my friend with a hyper active Golden, and she's not got great manners. She's just a puppy, though. I was able to greet my friend, take off my shoes, and sit on the couch before I got mobbed. Then it was pretty mellow. She just sat on the couch beside me and asked me to hold her paw.

Just remember that any dog is going to match your energy. So it you always approach with excitement, you're going to get excitement back. If you approach with anger, you'll get fear. Approach with calmness, you'll get calmness.

 

[thing2]

@hotboi2

I get home from work, I have 2 hyped up dogs at the door. I walk in, put my stuff down, greet my husband, and sit down to take my shoes off. After my shoes are done, then I acknowledge their greetings. By then, there's no jumping, over excitement, or pushy behavior.

Oh my... How in the hell do you do that?

 

[hotboi2]

@thing2 Jumping has been discouraged since day 1. Barking as well. So it's been a lot of years holding expectations. One bounces at me, and the other just wants his butt scratched. It's all about engaging the behavior. I'll scratch his butt for 5 minutes when I'm ready, and he knows it will come if he waits. I even call them "good boy butt scratches," and he loves it.

When I get mad, and I do, it's always "go lay in your bed." Which is part of the place training. The other one just wants to lick me for a bit. I let her when I'm ready. It's a lot of you're pushing my boundaries, and I'll interact with you when I'm ready. This doesn't work with puppies. They don't know what boundaries are. They're just babies. That's the best time for redirection.

My kids know they'll get attention on my terms when I'm ready to approach. That doesn't mean they're laying on the couch when I get home. They're usually crowding the door. I just push past them and do what I want. Knees are a good offense. I just gently push my way through.

Reading through this, maybe I'm a cat?

 

[thing2]

@hotboi2 Our dude is really good at the door usually, but when he sees someone he hasn't seen for a while like our adult kids, he goes ballistic.

The moment I grab his collar, he sits or lays on the floor looking for belly rubs, so he knows what's expected, he just gets so excited to see someone he loves.

I need to do a better job of leashing him before the kids come in the door. That would help, because then the greeting just descends into chaos.

 

[hotboi2]

@thing2 My sister always comes in with a high-pitched baby voice and is excited. It drives me crazy and I've asked her to stop so many times. My dogs always get crazy with her. Her 6 year old daughter knows better. I just walk away.

Evidently, I am a cat.

Shout out to a fellow Canuck

 

[loriess]

@thing2 My 18m old GSD/Border Collie used to jump on me every time I walked through the door.

My trick was “consistency and boundaries”

Every time she jumped up at me, I would turn my back on her and ignore her. No vocal response, nothing. Just back turned and no attention.

Every time. It feels so stupid because all you want to do is take your shoes off etc, but it worked. Eventually she realised that leaping on me would just get her completely ignored.

After a few days of this she would stand there wagging her tail at me, so I’d ask her to sit. She struggled with that because OMG MY HUMAN IS HOME, but she learned that sitting down and waiting gets her attention much faster.

Now here’s the key: once I’ve done my thing and if she’s calm, I’ll invite her to jump up and greet me. That way she knows that she’s not allowed to just leap on me when she wants, but only when she’s invited to

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@hotboi2 this is such great advice!!

 

[extraneous]

@danielgithahu As would I.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@danielgithahu This is a good video that is pretty much what we did. The only difference is we ignored our dogs and tossed treats when they weren't looking instead of handing them directly so they would learn to relax when they're being ignored. It can be a little tedious because the dog is leading and you're waiting and rewarding the wanted behavior but I promise it's worth it!

 

[vladtepes831]

@danielgithahu Look to Karen Overall “relaxation protocol”!!

 

[throwawaymana]

@philipe The trainers at the place I take my dog to said that between 8-12 months is the hardest cause the pups are going through their “teenage transition” years before maturing to the adulthood. This is pretty normal.

Mine is basically doing the same. She was an Angel from 2-7 months and been a Rascal ever since. She is about 10.5 months now and just starting to come back around.

Things I have been doing:

• We still do a training class once a week, and having training at home at night. Keeps her mentally occupied and tires her out. Even if it is something as simple as making her sit over and over again.
• I take her to daycare once or twice a week. Helps with the socialization and exhausts her. Sometimes the daycares will also offer extra training.
• Bribe her with food. I basically carry cheese around with me everywhere, and am always slipping her crumbs to reinforce good behavior.
• she is old enough for a bully stick. Those are great.

​

 

[tifernie]

@philipe OMG, *please* stick it out through the rebellious "teenager" phase. If you scroll rescue websites you will see that so many dogs are surrendered at this age. Be consistent, keep setting limits, work on training, and you will get through it.

 

[cwall]

@tifernie This^
Please people, don't give up on your dogs only because of a temporary phase.
You wouldn't do that if they were your blood-related human children so don't do that to your dogs.
The shelters are full of adolescencent dogs who could have been amazing and well behaved life companion only if their humans had a bit more tolerance for them.

 

[tifernie]

@cwall It's truly only a matter of months and the number of dogs surrendered during this time is breaking my heart. There was a dog the other day on the Mid-Atlantic GSD rescue who's 8 months old and he was surrendered for exactly this reason. I also have an 8 month old GSD and I know they're a handful -- but it's also right when you can see hints of the amazing mature dog beginning to peek through. (Much like OP mentions in the post above.) If my husband would've let me, I would've filled out an application to rescue the poor guy. (I was so happy when I saw that someone put an application on him within 24 hours!!)

 

[rockybalboa]

@tifernie This is so sad.

Honestly while there was so many times of having our puppy I thought ‘why did we do this to ourselves’ I feel like once you are through the other side of the teenage phase, all that hard work finally pays off! We think our boy is finally becoming a bit more mature and we’re seeing all the rewards of training. He’s still sassy though but I think that’s just him

 

[inneedindeed]

@tifernie I needed to hear this today, thanks. 8 months being a little shit bag but we can get through it!

 

[deviantsvw]

@philipe This sub is gonna save my life. There's so much good advice here