What’s the most difficult time period of a puppy? Puppyhood? (1-5months) or Adolescence (6-8months+)?

[rosemarytyson]

Currently have a 3 month old with some insane biting and jumping and chewing andddd lack of regard for any commands i issue out :/

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@rosemarytyson Each phase has it's own difficulties but I found age 5-6 months to be the worst. That's when his bites were most painful and most frequent. Torn clothes and broken skin were the order of the day and the children lived in fear.

Now he's a year old and starting to come out of adolescence. Adolescence has been rough but not quite as bad as the bitey phase. Adolescence was all about him doing obnoxious things - counter surfing, demand barking, destructive chewing, item stealing..it was/is a real test.

He's really doing pretty well, though. He's made major improvements over the last couple of months. Today he got a perfect report card at daycare and hung out with the kids all evening and didn't need much management at all. I feel like we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[bhickey777]

@rosemarytyson It's all aweful

 

[juanbel]

@rosemarytyson Adolescence was the worst for us (8-14 months), though everyone has a different experience.

Puppyhood sucked, but I found it was more manageable for us because we knew that our pup didn't know any better. So while it sucked that she peed inside and bit our fingers, I knew it was completely normal and I just had to teach her what was appropriate and what wasn't.

Adolescence was the worst because at that point, she knew what she was and wasn't supposed to do, but she'd do it anyways. I know they aren't spiteful, but I swear she'd do things just to piss me off. It made everything so much worse because I was like "I just spent 6 months teaching you all of this, and now you're ignoring every single thing I taught you?" It also didn't help in our case because our girl is a large breed, so she hit adolescence and was a stubborn brat, as well as being big and 10x stronger than she was as a puppy.

 

[zel]

@rosemarytyson I think it varies on individual dogs and owner temperament, too!

I also think it’s difficult in different ways. With very young puppies, it’s difficult because it’s exhausting. It’s constant vigilance and monitoring and correcting and training and socialization and schedules. With adolescent puppies, it’s difficult because it’s frustrating. It’s hard to see the work that you’ve put in seem to be useless (even though it’s not!). Adolescent puppies are also bigger and have more stamina, which can exacerbate the Little Puppy Problems. For those of us out here with medium or large breed dogs, by the time they’re like six months old, it gets harder (or just plain impossible) to scoop them up and out of trouble.

For me, I think the young puppy stage is the hardest. I tend to worry that I’m not doing enough, especially in that two month span from 8 to 16 weeks where SOCIALIZATION and SHOTS and POTTY TRAINING and CRATE TRAINING and OW STOP BITING ME are all SO IMPORTANT and happening all at once with a totally blank slate who has no connection to or understanding of you. At least in my experience, in adolescence, puppies may regress in some of these areas, but not all of them at once, so it’s easier for me to focus on and target that unwanted behavior and work on it.