Have You Ever Noticed Rebellious Puberty Periods in Dogs' Life?
Have You Ever Noticed Rebellious Puberty Periods in Dogs' Life?
Contents
1. Research on Puberty in Puppies——preface
2. What Should You Do when Your Puppies Are in Puberty?
3. 6 Tips for Dealing with the Dog's Rebellious Period Scientifically
Research on Puberty in Puppies——preface
People in their teens are always overly energetic. They even stay up late playing games and spend the whole day sleeping. We call this stage adolescence. However, do you know that your pet dogs will also undergo the puberty stage?
According to the new collaborative research conducted by several universities in the United Kingdom, pups act out similarly to human teens going through puberty.
Though puppies are just ordinary dogs. They don't stay up late to play games, secretly smoke and drink, or complain about their owners abusing behaviors. Still, in their pubescent months, researchers found that dogs are more likely to ignore their caregivers' commands and are harder to train overall.
Researchers from Nottingham, Edinburgh, and Newcastle observed 60 pre-pubertal (4 to 5 months) puppies. They then followed up again when dogs were in puberty (7 to 8 months).
The study results showed that dogs entering puberty take longer to respond after receiving instructions from their owners, even though they know what they should do next.
The researchers also conducted a questionnaire investigating more than 200 dog owners. The conclusion showed that puppies in adolescence are more challenging to manage and train.
Behavioral ethicist Lucy Asher said in the "Biology Letters" that the relationship between dogs and caregivers is as close as children and their parents. Dog owners often feel frustrated as puppies enter puberty. During adolescence, just like teenagers, dogs are full of hormones. Its brain will be re-adjusted, which leads to the dog ignore or disobey the owner's commands.
The teenage period seems short. Based on data from a study of 280 guide dogs, researchers found that pre-and post-pubertal dogs are more "easy to train" than puberty dogs.
Scientists say that because of the similarity between dogs and humans, dogs can also be used as a model for studying human puberty. More practically, when we suddenly find that the puppies are not obedient and acting as they like, no need to worry so much. The puppy's rebelliousness may only continue for a temporary period.
However, adolescent puppies usually only show disobedience to their owners, but not strangers. Their behavior is much more ordinary when facing strangers. According to Zoologist Harvey, this is similar to teenagers. They are only likely to behave rebelliously towards their parents or teachers. Harvey said this has something to do with puppies' puberty. During puberty, the brains will reorganize, and the hormones in the body will also undergo specific changes.
But don't worry too much. For teenagers or adolescent puppies, this kind of rebellious behavior will not last forever. Once puberty ends, the Dogs will become obedient and tractable.
What Should You Do when Your Puppies Are in Puberty?
Animal behaviorists advise: "When the owners train their dogs, maintain consistency and use rewards instead of punishment."
Experts stated the owners should learn that puppies are not behaving disobediently deliberately. On the contrary, their behaviors result from normal physiological reactions. The owners should treat puberty puppies with more care. And puppies will return to normal soon.
6 Tips for Dealing with the Dog's Rebellious Period Scientifically
1. It is essential to maintain good relationships with adolescent dogs.
During this period, the relationship between you and your dogs will grow stable. You will find that adolescent dogs are more willing to communicate with you. If you have raised a dog since you were a child. Your dog even went through puberty under your care. Then things apparently are good for you. You have months to get to know each other, build relationships, and spend more time accompanying, playing games, and training.
2. Adjust and upgrade the Dogs' biting toys
Most teething stages occur before puberty and eventually end until an average of 7 to 9 months of age. Some dogs are still powerful chewers in adulthood. So at this stage, it is essential to adjust and upgrade the biting toys for your dogs.
For example, biting toys suitable for 5-month-old puppies may no longer be a safe choice for dogs with more vital jawing ability. It took your dog an hour to gnaw through a molar a few weeks ago. It might only take 10 minutes now.
3. Adolescent dogs have different sleeping times
Dogs in this period need less sleep time. It is never a good choice to rely on physical exercise to exhaust your dog. Better, you should try more short but exciting training sessions or brain games to interact with your dog.
Adolescent dogs are likely to experience sudden interruptions during sleep at night, which means dog owners will also experience several sleepless nights. Just be patient with that.
4. Continuous social train for adolescent dogs.
In the sensitive socialization phase of your dogs (12 to 16 weeks ago), you have socialized well with them. Still, you should not stop interacting with them just because your dogs are already teenagers. Even if you have just adopted an adolescent dog, continuous social training is essential with its unknown social history.
You may notice that your dogs may suddenly show vigilance or even fear about previous non-problematic things. This reaction repeatedly occurs during adolescence and may last for days or even weeks. For example, dogs may be alert or fearful of a fire hydrant or suddenly bark at strangers or dogs when walking.
Don't worry. Just be calm and patient. Dogs at this stage are not always able to control their emotions. Don't punish them for these seemingly rude behaviors. Softly appease them cause they may just intend to avoid scary things.
5. Adolescent dogs are more interested in walking
Many puppies show great internet in staying in their safe homes. But things are the opposite in adolescence. They are leaving their homes and exploring new places all the time. This is a primitive biological impulse. You may notice that when walking, the adolescent dogs have more stamina to keep up with you. They always lower their head to study various smells.
Under the premise of a safe environment, use a leash to control the distance freely so your dogs can lower their heads and sniff whenever they want.
6. The Dogs' response to the words becomes unstable.
When training puppies, they quickly learn to sit, lie down, come over, and lay down. If your Dogs seem suddenly forget all of the training. Don't worry. Actually, they still remember. When puberty ends, they will return to normal. Keep training and keep breathing. All your efforts will be rewarded in the future.