Willow is 5 months old. Overall she has been a very easy, well-behaved puppy! But recently…
About once a week, she spots deer grazing nearby and barks at them through the backyard fence. This behavior only started a month ago, so I guess she’s done it only about four times.
When I walk back into the yard after collecting chicken eggs, she sometimes jumps up toward the egg basket. She’s not always by the gate when I come in, and even when she is, she doesn’t always jump up. She only started doing it when she realized she was big enough that she might be able to reach the basket as I’m holding it up.
Last night, she was bored and started pulling threads from one of the rugs. She used to do that when she was a wee puppy, but had stopped as I helped her develop a habit of chewing on her toys instead. I couldn’t remember her chewing on the rugs within the past month.
It would be easy to dismiss all of these behaviors as “not a big deal” because they don’t happen all the time. It would be easy to completely forget that they even happen, because there’s so much to pay attention to each day. But they all have something in common: an adolescent dog experimenting with impulsive new behaviors.
Growing into adolescence
Clients are always shocked when I tell them that their 4-5 month old “puppy” is already transitioning into an adolescent. The pup is only half their final adult size, and the owner may have only recently started walking them after finishing their puppy vaccinations. But when it comes to their emotional, social, and decision-making development, they are similar to a 12-14 year old human. Of particular note here, is that:
They start to try out new behaviors, and see what happens as a result, and
Compared to a mature adult, they have a greatly reduced capacity for impulse control.
This is why I am observing Willow to occasionally bark, jump, and chew on the rug. Your own dog may be - just occasionally - checking what’s on the counter or table, running off to sniff something instead of staying close at the park, pulling toward other dogs during walks, barking back at dogs who charge a fenceline, and so on.
Here’s the most important takeaway for you:
Anytime you notice your budding adolescent doing a new behavior, ask yourself, “Do I want my dog to do more of that?”
Because if you do nothing, they will do it more.
They can’t help it. It’s how their brain is wired. But these behaviors will become entrenched habits that will take a lot more work to undo if you don’t notice them right away, or dismiss them because they’re only happening here and there.
How will you stop your dog from forming a habit of barking, jumping, lunging, chewing, etc? That’s a more complicated topic, as it depends heavily on context. For now, I just want you to notice. The first step toward addressing (or preventing) a problem is knowing that there is a problem (starting).