Adolescence in Dogs is Both Lions and Lambs

Adolescence in any species can be a tricky time. Teenaged dogs, just like teenaged humans, can be distracted, emotional, and erratic! All this behavioral instability can be frustrating for the humans. But understanding what’s actually going on in our adolescent dogs can really help us help them, as well as help us find the patience we need when living with them.

First, there are big changes in the body. Hormones are coming online and many dogs are almost their full adult size, despite young brains that still have a lot of maturing to do. Basically, we’ve got a mismatch - dogs who look fully grown, and whose humans expect as such from their behavior - but they are anything but.

Adolescent dogs priorities are also shifting - towards independence, food sourcing, social networking, and reproduction. Our once little dependent puppies become completely unrecognizable.

But their behavior changes in other ways, too, and here’s why:

The inhibitory neurons of the amygdala that help to regulate emotional responses don’t fully mature until the end of adolescence. So just like with their human counterparts, we see a lot more big feelings in our teenaged pups and more pronounced emotional ups and downs.

The communication between the frontal cortex (center for self-control and cognitively overriding) and the amygdala (the emotional center) decreases during adolescence, which is partially why skills that were previously reliable seem to disappear, and your dog’s self control has gone out the window. In fact, connectivity all over the brain as a whole really varies as different things mature at different times, which can explain the erratic nature of your teenaged dog’s behavior and their new concerns about once humdrum things.

Third, the region in the cortex key for attentional allocation is not fully developed yet, which translates to being more easily distracted.

Last but not least, our adolescents are still having experiences that will impact how they will behave as adult dogs. Although we often focus on the vunerability of puppies, adolescents are perhaps even more vunerable. Stress is a critical variable at this time; due to changes in the brain, it takes twice as long for an adolescent dog to recover physiologically from a

stressful experience than it does a puppy or adult dog. They need more down time to recover. Dogs also have enhanced sensitivity to fearful learning during this phase, and extinction memory is impaired, so a teenaged pup who has a bad experience is much more likely to form a ‘hard wired’ fear memory.

Add all these things together, and it comes as no surprise that many teenaged dogs are surrendered to shelters. There’s no definitive beginning or end to this period across canines - onset and end of adolescence greatly varies between breeds, genders, and individuals. It can begin as early as 4 months and end as late as 3 years. All dogs go through adolescence and experience these changes. Some teenaged dog’s behavior dramatically changes; others’ not so much.

Regardless, here’s some recommendations for humans sharing their lives with teenaged dogs:

Have realistic expectations. There’s lots of variability when teaching or calling on skills from day to day with teenagers. Adapt your plans to what your dog seems capable of that day; don’t worry if it’s not as outstanding as last week’s responses. That’s normal. Obviously, this isn’t the best time to really work on high level, complex training. Not to worry - all the learning your dog did previously is still there, just not all that accessible to them at the moment.

Bring in more management to prevent failure. It’s often necessary to rein things in at this time, like using a long line versus full off leash privileges. This isn’t forever, just for now.

Protect your pup. Our teenaged dogs are more vulnerable to onset of behavior issues than during other phases of life and can certainly have formative experiences, so taking extra care to keep our teenaged dogs feeling safe is key. This often means ratcheting back, carefully considering and holding off on experiences in which it’s possible that something overwhelming happen to your pup. Keep in mind it may not be anything that has overwhelmed your pup in the past, but he’s seeing things through different eyes now, and this can include even the most well-intentioned behavior modification plans.

What does this actually look like/what can you do?

-You can give your dog the time and space to observe what is going on around them when on leash at a distance away from the activity.
-You can give your dog long walks to sniff and explore in nature, giving their brain time to decompress. -You can offer your dog a quiet space to sleep so that they can consolidate memories effectively.
-You can let them approach, explore and retreat in their own time.
-Avoid negative encounters or worrying situations for now; that one bad experience at this time could taint your dog’s view of the world and affect his behaviour as an adult. It is better at this stage to have little experience rather than a bad one, so keep to people, places and things you know whilst your pup is going through this period. Keep all social interactions positive and be as careful as you can be not to let your dog encounter socially inappropriate dogs as this is a time when these encounters can shape the way your adult dog interacts with those around them.

This means avoiding unpredictable circumstances like dog parks and crowded trails and pathways, as well as busy pet supply stores and the like.

Last but not least: your mindset. Recognize what is happening in your teenaged pup’s brain, that it’s just a phase, adapt your expectations. Remember that he’s not trying to be distracted or erratic, just like you weren’t when you were 14. A good dose of humor and patience will really help too! Fortunately, adolescence is much shorter-lived in dogs than humans, and before long you’ll both be enjoying the sunny summertime of life.