TTerrible TTeens !

So TTeens are a thing -  sometimes calm TTJD -Tibetan Terrier  Juvenile Delinquents.

In truth every dog ( and child) goes through the same process. It is a right of passage, a physical, mental and emotional upheaval.

We see so many new behaviours as they grow from puppyhood to adulthood. In dogs it happens quickly and goes on for up to a year.

This includes (not exhaustively) :

• coat changes,
  
• seasons and all the sulking, misery and grumpiness which goes with hormones
• humping, anything and everything (sometimes)
  
• being fearful or seemingly invincible (think Scrappy Doo!)
• reactive behaviours  or sensitivities developing
  
• pushing boundaries and relationships , "trying it on"
  
• forgetting anything an everything  they ever knew
• not listening
• attention seeking, frustrations,  demanding behaviours

Does this sound familiar (for human teens too?)

This usually happens around 8months to around 16months. Though it is not a magical start  and finish time!

So why do we see these aggravating behaviours?

Coat changes and emotional changes such as grumpiness or a return of nipping etc and sometimes humping (boys and girls) this can be hormone driven, but not always, get a vet check if yu are worried, medical needs can cause these behaviours too.

The reason most people get so frustrated with their pups at this time is becuase they seem to  lose all their learning and seem to be making up their own rules!!  (they ARE) Their beautiful cute pupppy schooll obedient puppy is an embarressing  monster.

These behaviours occur biologically (neurobiologically) as  their brain is literally filing and sorting out what is important in their adult life (from their experience)  and growing the behaviours and experiences that are effective and useful for them  and ditching that which seems nonsensical or boring. It is a really important stage, not be underestimated, and one that needs kind and patient support.

There is a biological purpose to this; this is the time they are striving out for independence from the nest (you and your family) and testing their attachments to their people, especially the ones that they have the closest attachment to. A well balanced dog (or human) has a secure attachment to one or more of their adult caregivers . This is the family member who they trust to "be there for them" who they will check in with for support and return to when worried. (There is science from John Bowlby and Ainsworth for humans for the science geeks)

It coincides ( nature plans this) with the second fear or sensitive period. This is a time when they can find life a little worrying,  they can become worried overnight. suddenly sounds bother them or the cat next door, or a scooter... support from their humans can reassure and help them through this.

Sadly this is also the time often recommended ( wrongly ) that neutering will “fix” all this natural behaviour. It won’t, in some cases it will secure the very behaviours we are trying to "fix". They need the develpment of these hormonal changes to secure physical and emotional health and also to have the wherewithall to manage their behaviours.

Testing boundaries helps to sort out how safe they are. How reliable their caregivers are.

They are not trying to be boss or dominate you. Quite the opposite actually. The behaviour is to ensure YOU are a reliable guide. So any rough harsh treatment can harm that relationship and cause fears. I read so often " he is dominating you , be the alpha" apart from there being no such domineering role - and showing the advisors total ignorance  of how we should support our dogs, nothing could be further from the truth. Your dog is feeling confused and wants family guidance and support, yes boundaries are vital, but with kindness and guidance, not force or fear (for a dog, even a harsh NO can be devastating for their trusting relationship with you). 

It is at this time that the neurobiology of the teen dog is at its busiest. Like humans, young dogs have super neuroplasicity to their brains. Every single thing they come cross is filed, it is why they need so much rest time, and why on a busy day without enough calm processing time they literally lose their minds in zoomies!

Every bit of learning builds a pathway. Every time the pathway of that learning is used it strengthens and is more likely to get selected again. Pathways that are not used (rehearsed) become dormant. It is why positive learnng is so effective, every positive connection to the learing pathway makes it much more likely to be selected. Training with our puppies aims to positively buld wanted pathways and leave the not wanted ones dormant.

In the Teen brain filing they review every pathway, positive or not, used or not, and decide how useful it will be as an adult (obviously not quite like us going through our old paperwork!). Even the ones that are underused. if that seems appealing or may get what they want effectively (remember the attention seeking?) then they try it out, and the more it is worthwhile the more it grows.

We need to work with them , ask ourselves what are they aiming to achieve with this behaviour - the demanding attention seeking sure is NOT  that they want to dominate you or take over your world.... how will they get fed, get water, go out in the world to have fun, have a safe place to sleep, we provide and  control  EVERY  one of their basic needs , they wont risk that by taking our usefulness away!

So often the main complaint of teen dogs is that they fail to listen, dont come back, are too interested in playing (remember the connection with human teens, sound familiar?)The recall disappearing is the need to test independence. They don’t know it’s important to stay close they have no idea of the dangers or of the rudeness of approaching others uninvited.

So we need to work even harder now to make coming back and staying close way way more important than the independence.We need to go back to the puppy learning and long lines are recommended . We need to make coming back (in fact ALL listening and engaging with us and others)  fun, safe and essential FOR THEM. It is up to us to really work on this now or they WILL lose it, they will keep the "run and have fun", and they will ditch the come back (listen and "obey)  and be bored. Adult Dogs with poor recall have usually lost it at this age becuase coming back was not worthwhile.

In fact ALL  the learning you want in place needs revisiting now and secured over the next 8m to a year, consistently, patiently and working with what motivates YOUR dog.

Dogs that are unmotivated or bored or feel unsafe become attention seeking and as that works, because we give them attention, negative attention works as well as positive attention at building the pathway the dog is seeking, but it is not the one we want, they will rehearse and repeat! This is often where the humping behaviour becomes really effective, it gets rid of the anxiety of not knowing expectations clearly, it deals with the resulting rising hormones fed by anxiety and it builds pathways that make them feel good. It is  the same for biting, brattish demanding behaviours. We need to look at what they are saying , and how we can build the pathways we DO want at the same time as guiding them safely.

Training is actually more important for them now than it was as a puppy. It needs to be fun, short sessions and worthwhile. They need to engage and buy in to it, look forward to it and respond positively to our positivity.  The brain will then be able to enable them to write the pathways we DO want, the pathways that make them polite and engaging fun attentive calm adults. Pathways are built with lots of use and practice. Whether we want it or not. So practice what you WANT to grow it LOTS but also dont let them practice those we want to file away. if they dont use it they wil lose it, good or bad!

We should make sure , like puppies, we provide calm and chill time for all the new learning/filing to be processed. It is more effective with play, and quality sleep and rest.

Often Teens get into trouble because they become super inventive to keep themselves learning and busy.So we need to provide that too. Lots of enrichment and fun games can make all the difference... but that is a different Blog entirely !

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