Adolescent Dogs

Most dogs go through an adolescent period when they reach six months and this usually lasts until they are 14 months of age. However, the exact age of adolescence does vary between breeds and individual dogs. Be aware that this adolescent period can be characterized by behavior changes in your dog. De-sexing will help resolve these issues.

You should reprimand your dog for unacceptable behavior, no matter what that behavior is. If you do not reprimand your dog’s poor behavior then it will feel that it has the right to behave that way and it will take much longer to correct the behavior. What I recommend you do the next time your dog acts poorly and exhibits dominant tendencies (such as growling) is throw a heavy blanket over your dog and be sure to reprimand it. DO NOT yell, as this has no effect on the dominant dog.

Undertake the following techniques to re inforce your status as alpha dog:

If you come across your dog while she is sleeping or lying on the floor then you can re inforce your position as alpha dog by making her move so that you can pass by.

Generally I do not recommend people giving their dogs bones as this can encourage (possessive) aggression (in the wild the alpha dog would be the only one to have the privilege of chewing the bones). The reason your dog growls at you when you approach it with a bone is because it believes that it has the right to the bone and is trying to discipline you for challenging your dog for its dominant role.

Make sure that you always go through doorways first. A good method to re inforce your position as alpha dog is to walk your dog around the house on the leash, making your dog wait while you walk through doorways first.

At mealtimes make sure that she eats after all of the humans have.

Do not feed your dog tidbits or let her pester you at the table. Save the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.

Do not greet her straightaway when you arrive home. Make her wait until you are ready and then call her to you.

When she wants to go outside for a walk, make her sit and wait until you are ready to go.

Do not inadvertently re inforce poor behavior from your dog. You must be consistent. For example, if she is allowed to jump on you when you are playing with it but is not allowed to jump up at any other time, she will be unable to understand the difference.

Once you and your roommates have followed the above techniques, you should notice a distinct difference in the behavior your puppy exhibits to everyone in the household. This will definitely help with the talking back and barking when you tell her off, and most likely the jumping and chewing objects also. However there are other methods we can use to help get your puppy out of these particular behavioral problems.

With regards to jumping and lunging, there are a few techniques you may wish to try – some of which you may have already tried. I would recommend not really trying these methods until you have undertaken the alpha dog techniques described above for a couple of months. After this time you may wish to begin with this other training.

Your puppy should not be allowed to jump in any situation. This means that she should not be allowed to jump on family members OR strangers. If you allow her to jump up at home, she will not realize that jumping on strangers is inappropriate. Next time she goes to jump on you, move quickly towards her, then as she moves back to prevent being stepped on, tell her to sit, and praise her for obeying.

Or when she begins to jump, totally ignore her, don't even look at her. Cross your arms, and look at the ceiling. When she eventually calms down, ask her to sit then praise her. You could attach her leash, then if she jumps, tell her "Off" firmly, then give a sideways pull on the leash, so that she loses her balance, and falls down to all four paws. Praise her quickly so that she associates being on all fours with your praise. Your roommates should join in so that she knows not to jump on anyone – not just yourself.

As for chewing here are some important points to help you curb the behavior:

1. You will have to spend quite a lot of time doing corrective training with your puppy
2. You will need to reprimand your puppy effectively when you can catch her chewing (or performing any other destructive behavior)
3. You will also have to restrict your puppy’s access to chewable things when you are not around to control it

You can train your puppy to recognize that chewing anything but its toys is unacceptable, however the minute you are not around, the puppy is instantly the alpha dog and can do whatever it wants.

Spend some time every day, quietly following your puppy, so that she believes she is alone and free to do as she pleases. The aim being that you want to catch her in the act.

Startle and reprimand her as soon as she starts to chew on something. The best way to do this is verbally, or by shaking a can (like a soda can) of pebbles to startle her. Give your dog time out in another room or an area where there is nothing for her to chew. When you are away, restrict access to your roommates' rooms, and always give her plenty of her own toys to keep her busy chewing on good stuff.

Because she is so young you shouldn’t have any problem training her out of the behaviors you have been seeing recently. Be sure to reward all good behaviors as well as reprimanding bad ones. It will take time, patience and persistence to overcome these problems, but you will make a breakthrough relatively quickly in this case if you follow all the steps and stick to them.here

Excessive Barking: What It Means and How To Cope

There are guaranteed to be some occasions when your dog's barking is going to be inconvenient, but this doesn't mean that you have to view your dog's vocalization as an intolerable irritation. You could choose to look at it more constructively: your dog is trying to communicate with you. In order to cope with and control excessive barking, you need to understand what the reason is – and 

then take steps to remove the stimulus.

Different Barks & Their Circumstances

If you can spend some time watching your dog, you'll find there's a fair bit to be learned about the different barks he uses and why he's using them. If you can learn to recognize these and then pair them with the circumstances in which they typically occur, so much the better.

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• Boredom. This is a major problem for a lot of dogs. Some can handle being by themselves for long periods of time (for example, the average working day), but the truth is that it's really hard on most dogs. Barking is something your dog can do to relieve the boredom, and to give himself something to do. A dog barking out of boredom or loneliness will usually do so repetitively and with little alteration in frequency, tone, or volume.
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• Toilet-call. Most dogs will show their need to go outside by pacing, circling, sniffing the ground, and whining; a lot will sit by the door or pace restlessly back and forth. The type of bark that accompanies this behavior is usually a single short, sharp imperative (repeated if you don't take action the first time round).
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• Dinner-time: this is similar to the toilet-call bark (the motive is similar: your dog thinks that you need to be made aware of something). He will probably be racing around energetically, interspersing the barks with little pleading whines and jumps.Excited barking is an expression of joy: your dog's happy about something and needs to let the world know. You should be able to tell by the circumstances and his body language (tail waving, mouth open and panting, front elbows touching the ground, rear end up in the air), but happy-barking is also higher-pitched than usual.
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• Warning barking is almost always a husky baying noise – your dog is trying to make himself sound bigger and meaner than he actually might be. Even the smaller breeds, which are physically incapable of producing anything more menacing than shrill yapping, will lower their tone as much as possible. This is usually accompanied with raised hackles, and a tense “I-dare-you” posture: leaning forward, tail stiff and twitching, ears pointing forward or back.

Coping With Excessive Barking

Sufficient exercise and companionship take care of about 95% of irritating-barking cases. If your dog's still barking after you've ruled out the obvious, you'll need to employ some tried-and-true tactics for controlling this habit.

Tips for Curbing Barking:

• Never reward barking. You need to teach him that barking is no longer an effective communication tool. If you dog is barking, he must get no attention – period – until he stops. Don't touch him, talk to him, feed him, or look at him.
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• Teach the “enough” command. When your dog starts to bark, break his attention quickly: call him to you, and say firmly “Quiet”. The moment he stops barking, treat him profusely.
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• Remember to allow him to vent: you can't expect your dog to stop barking altogether. You need to be realistic and allow him the chance to get a few good barks out before you quiet him.
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• You need to redirect his energy into a different channel. Tell him to “quiet”, and then get him to sit or lie down. It's important that you give him something else to do. Treat him when he obeys you.read more here    

                           

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