No matter times you practice sit-stay, leave-it or wait, there comes a time in every dog owners relationship where your dog seems to have forgotten everything: adolescence. From puppies to adolescent dogs, your dog spends nearly 2 years as an adolescent (8 months to 2+ years old). During this time, your dog develops a mind of his own and beings testing and pushing previously established boundaries and limitations. Families watch their once fluffy, 15 pound puppy quadruple in size and go from rolling around the carpet to tearing apart the living room. This frustrating time is reflected in the average age of dogs surrendered to animal shelters; 8 months to 2 years old. While it may seem impossible to remain calm when your dog is bolting through your neighbors yards and teasing their dogs, its the best thing you can do. Remain patient and go back to the basics.
Ubu is just over a year old and brilliantly displaying how disorderly he can be. One day he was healing off leash on trails with us and the next he was bolting through the woods playing tag with us...for hours. A few months ago he started chewing and we have since then tossed out all of his toys except a soccer ball and a nylabone. My girlfriend and I pride ourselves as being high energy outdoor enthusiasts, but even Ubu outruns us everyday. In the midst of hurricane Ubu it is challenging to embody calm assertive energy. Always look to other members of the pack for support, take a few breaths and look at the situation as a learning experience. Instead of introducing new training techniques to a seemingly unruly dog, go back to the basics. Set you and your dog up for success by coming back to simply commands like sit, stay or heal. Keep in mind your dog lives in the moment and despite his destructive rant with a box-spring the day before, today is a new day.
In the calm of the storm, Ubu often surprised us with progress. Just before Ubu’s 1st birthday we took a trip up north to Lake Placid, NY for a weekend of hiking, camping and kayaking. Even though Ubu would walk in the water up to his waist, he was still very cautious about proceeding into deeper water. After a long bike ride I stopped at a pond and tossed a few sticks in the water for Ubu to fetch. Each time I threw the stick further and at one point Ubu kept going and started swimming! Since then, Ubu avidly retrieves his dummy in any body of water. Feeling confident about Ubu’s progress we decided to take Ubu kayaking with us. To our surprise he jumped right into the kayak and we took off. Once we hit the middle of the lake he decided he wanted to jump out and then decided to climb back into the kayak. From there he decided the bow of the boat was more comfortable for cruising.
Needless to say, raising a dog from 8 weeks of age through adolescence is both challenging and rewarding. Right now we are looking forward to Ubu’s 3rd birthday and in the meantime we make sure he gets more than enough exercise and enforce his boundaries.
Ubu is just over a year old and brilliantly displaying how disorderly he can be. One day he was healing off leash on trails with us and the next he was bolting through the woods playing tag with us...for hours. A few months ago he started chewing and we have since then tossed out all of his toys except a soccer ball and a nylabone. My girlfriend and I pride ourselves as being high energy outdoor enthusiasts, but even Ubu outruns us everyday. In the midst of hurricane Ubu it is challenging to embody calm assertive energy. Always look to other members of the pack for support, take a few breaths and look at the situation as a learning experience. Instead of introducing new training techniques to a seemingly unruly dog, go back to the basics. Set you and your dog up for success by coming back to simply commands like sit, stay or heal. Keep in mind your dog lives in the moment and despite his destructive rant with a box-spring the day before, today is a new day.
In the calm of the storm, Ubu often surprised us with progress. Just before Ubu’s 1st birthday we took a trip up north to Lake Placid, NY for a weekend of hiking, camping and kayaking. Even though Ubu would walk in the water up to his waist, he was still very cautious about proceeding into deeper water. After a long bike ride I stopped at a pond and tossed a few sticks in the water for Ubu to fetch. Each time I threw the stick further and at one point Ubu kept going and started swimming! Since then, Ubu avidly retrieves his dummy in any body of water. Feeling confident about Ubu’s progress we decided to take Ubu kayaking with us. To our surprise he jumped right into the kayak and we took off. Once we hit the middle of the lake he decided he wanted to jump out and then decided to climb back into the kayak. From there he decided the bow of the boat was more comfortable for cruising.
Needless to say, raising a dog from 8 weeks of age through adolescence is both challenging and rewarding. Right now we are looking forward to Ubu’s 3rd birthday and in the meantime we make sure he gets more than enough exercise and enforce his boundaries.
No comments:
Post a Comment